Georgia Writers Association

Recently I joined Sisters in Crime, because I’d written my first mystery, and I wanted to hang around with other people who dealt in murder and mayhem. One big plus of joining was that I got to hang out with Patty Sprinkle and listen to her tales of the writing game. I’d read several of her MacLaren Yarborough mysteries,  set in the vicinity of my stompin’ grounds below Macon, and was dismayed to hear her say she wasn’t going to write any more of them. Then I found out why.

Death on the Family Tree,    348pp. $6.99

Sins of the Fathers, 368pp., $6.99

Patricia Sprinkle

Avon, 2007

“Someone told me,” she said, “that she could see me in Mac.  I knew it was time to quit.” Sprinkle began a new series which centers around genealogy and family history, of which Death on the Family Tree is the first and Sins of the Fathers the second. [note: These books were nominated for a Georgia Author of the Year Award]

We are plunged into the world of Katharine Murray, a Buckhead matron transplanted from Miami who never quite fit in with the ALTA tennis set. The opening line of Death on the Family Tree is irresistible:

With a husband who spends most of his time in Washington, a grown son and daughter, and no need to hold a job, Katharine finds herself at loose ends and feeling a little sorry for herself—it’s her birthday, and no one’s there to celebrate.   

When a truckload of boxes arrives bearing her deceased Aunt Lucy’s effects, Katharine delves right in, hoping for distraction. She finds a dusty old diary written in German, as well as a mysterious antique necklace.  Katharine is energized into solving the mystery of whose diary this might be and why Aunt Lucy had it. And the necklace? It’s obviously a valuable work of art, and most unlike Aunt Lucy.

Katharine’s curiosity takes her to the Atlanta History Center to look into Aunt Lucy’s past, where she encounters an old acquaintance, Dr. Florence Gadney, a retired professor from Spelman, as well as Dr. Hobart Hastings, a college friend who’s now a professor of history at Emory.

These two genealogy buffs, as well as the seedy but knowledgeable Lamar Franklin, help her in her quest. Her niece Hollis, a budding artist who doesn’t quite fit in the white-bread world of her parents and sisters—she’s more, shall we say, Little Five Points—is also drawn in. A nicely rounded cast also includes Dutch, an old friend of her father, and the irrepressible Posey, her sister-in-law, who (for sure) lunches at the Swan Coach House. 

Little does Katharine she realize she’s going to uncover dark secrets of an old and wealthy Atlanta family as well as murder, putting herself and all she holds dear in danger.

Well-researched, this novel both informs about historical and genealogical research and makes spot-on social commentary. I’m sure many women with spouses who travel can identify with Katharine’s feelings about her marriage.  I could write much more, but I don’t want to spoil the mystery.

Sins of the Fathers opens with a call from Dr. Flo, inviting Katharine to accompany her down to McIntosh County on the coast, where she needs to sign a paper authorizing removal of three old graves on a private island to a different location. They’re standing in the way of a development of waterside McMansions.

Though Dr. Flo is not even sure one of the graves is that of her grandfather, Claude Gilbert, the dates on the grave match the ones in her records, and she wants to see the stone for herself. Katharine, with her husband away and still a little spooked by the vandalizing of her house in the previous novel, agrees to go with her—and finds herself plunged right back into danger.

It seems that private Bayard Island is populated by, well, Bayards, and none of them want Katharine and Dr. Flo there. They just wish she’d sign the papers and get the heck out of Dodge. The Bayards don’t even agree with each other. Son Burch, poster boy for dissipated Southern aristocracy, wants to sell the gravesites for development. His wife Mona, daughter of a Texas oil baron, is all for it, but Burch’s rifle-totin’ drunk old daddy and his nature-loving teenage son hate the idea. 

The Stampers, three generations of women who run a seafood business on the far end of the island, have their own family crises and are divided about the land sale, while Miss Agnes Morrison, an eccentric retired schoolteacher who lives in an inherited house on the island, despises the idea of selling, and might even press her own claim to the land—if she can find the original deed.

As Katharine and Dr. Flo are drawn into this potent brew of trouble, the reader is drawn as well. The atmosphere of the island is perfect—hot, muggy, and menacing with chiggers, sandspurs, and rattlesnakes. From every twist and surprising turn to the final chilling moment, this is a book that won’t let you go, even after it’s over. 

{mosimage}Anne Lovett, a Georgia native, began her writing career with a humor column for her high school newspaper, hoping to write science fiction. She was educated at Emory and Georgia Tech, receiving a Ph.D. in natural products chemistry. She helped to found a manufacturing and technical supplies company now doing business nationwide and eventually made her way back to writing, though not science fiction. A member of Georgia Writers, Georgia Romance Writers, AWP and Rosemary Daniell’s Zona Rosa Alpha Babes, her short fiction has appeared in Aethlon: Journal of Sport Literature, The Distillery, The Jewish Women’s’ Literary Annual, and Red Wheelbarrow. Non-fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared locally, and several novels are in the pipeline. She is a regular contributor to the online journal The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon (www.barbaraknott.net).