Review: Interesting Plot but writing style falls short
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 18, 2014
I bought this book for my Kindle because I, too, am an amateur genealogist and thought it would be fun to read a mystery involving that hobby. Actually, there's very little about genealogy until you get about halfway through the novel. The book is told in the first person by the main character, but he reveals very little about himself, which was frustrating. For instance, he mentions his children at one point but never says if he is married. He tells the story years after the events he is involved in took place, and even more years after the aunt lived whose life he is investigating. There is almost no dialogue in the entire book, and very few other "living" characters. You're about a third of the way through the book before you learn that he has a landscaping business, which turns out to be crucial to the story. It surprised me that he had a job, because he seems to be a total recluse for the first part of the book, and to be obsessed with a house he visited a few times as a young child.That said, the story did provide enough twists and turns, as well as interesting anecdotes about the crime syndicates in early 20th century Kansas City, to be worth the rather low price for the Kindle edition. Even though I found the style of writing lacking in polish, I was intrigued enough to read all the way through the book. It did occur to me that the writing style, or lack thereof, might have been deliberate by the author since the protagonist is not a professional writer, and the way he tells the story is the way one might write a (very) long letter to a favorite cousin.