Pale as the Dead (Natasha Blake, 1)

Rating:
Summary: Genealogy with a twist.
Review: Natasha Blake is a genealogist with a flair for hunting out the off-beat in family histories. Her curiosity is fuelled by her own unknown antecedents and by her instinctive leanings to the unusual and hiden secrets od various families. She is hired by a beautiful young girl, Bethany, who is obsessed by the artist and artists model, Lizzie Siddal, wife of the pre-raphaelite painter, Rossetti. The story is both ethereal and all too real as the past and the present intertwine. This is the first of a series featuring Natasha Blake as a genealogist-detective and one which I look forward to reading soon.

Rating:
Summary: exhilarating opening debut of a fascinating ?detective?
Review: On a photo shoot in the Cotswold, model Bethany Marshall hires genealogist Natasha Blake to research her family tree. At that initial consultation, Bethany animatedly discusses Pre-Raphaelite model, artist, and wife of Dante, Lizzie Siddal. Also at that consultation, Natasha meets the photographer Adam Mason, who is working on an exhibition to emulate the style of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. He asks to a do a shoot of Natasha, to which she unenthusiastically consents.

Before he can take her picture, Adam informs Natasha that Bethany vanished, leaving behind an old Marshall family diary. Since her address was inside and Bethany is her client, the "ancestor detective" begins a search for the missing woman. As she learns more about her subject and the Marshall ancestry, Natasha panics fearing history could repeat itself because of Bethany's obsession with Lizzie, whose life end tragically.

PALE AS THE DEAD is the exhilarating opening debut of a fascinating "detective" whose expertise is in researching the past. The story line is cleverly designed so as Natasha learns more about her client's enthrallment and subsequently more about Lizzie, she realizes that fast intervention might be needed to prevent a repeat tragedy. The look into Dante and his age adds depth to the solid plot. Though the attraction between Natasha and Adam is mindful of the movie Suspicion, it also takes away from the haunting theme of whether Bethany will become Lizzie number two. Still this is a unique tale starring a delightful individual who makes a fine sleuth whether it is the past or the present.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: exhilarating opening debut of a fascinating ¿detective¿
Review: On a photo shoot in the Cotswold, model Bethany Marshall hires genealogist Natasha Blake to research her family tree. At that initial consultation, Bethany animatedly discusses Pre-Raphaelite model, artist, and wife of Dante, Lizzie Siddal. Also at that consultation, Natasha meets the photographer Adam Mason, who is working on an exhibition to emulate the style of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. He asks to a do a shoot of Natasha, to which she unenthusiastically consents.

Before he can take her picture, Adam informs Natasha that Bethany vanished, leaving behind an old Marshall family diary. Since her address was inside and Bethany is her client, the "ancestor detective" begins a search for the missing woman. As she learns more about her subject and the Marshall ancestry, Natasha panics fearing history could repeat itself because of Bethany's obsession with Lizzie, whose life end tragically.

PALE AS THE DEAD is the exhilarating opening debut of a fascinating "detective" whose expertise is in researching the past. The story line is cleverly designed so as Natasha learns more about her client's enthrallment and subsequently more about Lizzie, she realizes that fast intervention might be needed to prevent a repeat tragedy. The look into Dante and his age adds depth to the solid plot. Though the attraction between Natasha and Adam is mindful of the movie Suspicion, it also takes away from the haunting theme of whether Bethany will become Lizzie number two. Still this is a unique tale starring a delightful individual who makes a fine sleuth whether it is the past or the present.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Strong on character and atmosphere, weak on plot
Review: Pale as the Dead is a promising first mystery that -- like many first mysteries -- is strong on character and atmosphere, and a bit weak on plot. In Natasha Blake, Mountain has created a character with an interesting profession and enough personal problems to see us through several more installments of the promised series. Mountain writes evocatively of the Cotswolds (where Natasha lives) and of London and Oxford (where she often goes to do research). And she's obviously done a great deal of research on a number of subjects (the pre-Raphaelites, the profession of genealogy, medical issues), and manages to work the results of her research into the book without stopping it dead in its tracks.

The problem is that the solution to the mystery (at least, the 21st-century part of the mystery) seems anti-climactic, after everything that came before it. But everything up to that point was so good, that slight flaw won't stop me from reading the next Natasha Blake mystery.