Sometimes, it’s great just to kick back and relax… take a break from genealogy and read a good book. I’ve liked mysteries and thrillers since I was a kid – I always thought I’d be either a detective or a cop. Now I can’t see doing anything but what I love – Genealogy!
So I’ve combined my great love of mysteries and thrillers with my great love of genealogy. My favorite genealogy mystery thriller series is written by one woman – Rett MacPherson! If you’ve never read her books, you’re in for a treat! The series is about a woman named Torie (Victory) O’Shay and she’s – surprise! – a genealogist who lives and works in a small town in Missouri. Her job is my dream job. She works as he curator of the Gahmer House, which is a museum and the repository for the towns historical society. Torie had all kinds of adventures, all involving MURDER and GENEALOGY – YAY! Ms. MacPherson is right on her game when it comes to genealogy and has so many good ideas; as a matter of fact, I’ve used one or two of her ideas for our historical society here in town.
I have listed all of her books and the publication dates below. Please, do yourself a favor and pick up her books at your local library and if they don’t carry the series, you can always request that they interlibrary loan them from another library – which you can do at the reference desk.
Rett MacPherson
TORIE O’SHEA Mysteries:
Main Character: Victory O’Shea, Genealogist, Missouri
- Family Skeletons 1997
- A Veiled Antiquity 1998
- A Comedy of Heirs 1999
- A Misty Mourning 2000/01
- Killing Cousins 2002
- Blood Relations 2003
- In Sheep’s Clothing 2004
- Thicker Than Water 2005
- Dead Man Running 2006
- Died in The Wool 2007
- The Blood Ballad 2008
After the eleventh book, she stopped writing the series. She kind of vanished off the face of the earth. There are many sites on the Internet that mention her, but I have yet to find any that explain why her books about this character came to such an abrupt end. There is no clue to it ending in her last book, “The Blood Ballad” and I was heartbroken when, after waiting for a year, there were no more books about Torie, her cool family or the (sigh) Gahmer House. It was like losing an old friend…
On her website, www.RettMacPherson.com, it looks like it’s been hi-jacked. There is no personal content from her what-so-ever. She does have a Facebook page, but it is maddening in that it says nothing about why she quit writing and didn’t continue the series… Of course, because I don’t have a Facebook account (gasp!), I can’t fully read the comments – but if you do, and you can, perhaps you can enlighten me… Or maybe she’ll see this blog and answer herself!
This series was a credit to genealogy and it’s always been my wish that she resume writing this excellent series. Check out this series and you may think so too!
As always, I’d love to hear from you if you’ve read this series or know what happened to Rett or have a question about it…
