What’s my day like, you ask? Well, mostly I spend it hunting dead people.

I shouldn’t have put it like that. It makes me sound like a zombie hunter or something. I mean, I track down the living, too.

Dang it, that also sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it? (And if y’all heard the deep heh-heh-heh in the background, that’s my friend Flaco Medrano, owner of Big Flaco’s Tacos. At least he brought me more salsa fresca for my second breakfast taco of the morning while he laughed at me. One does need the right fuel to introduce themselves properly, and tacos are always the right fuel.)

Okay, then, me start over. Hi, there—my name is Lucy Lancaster and I’m a genealogist. I have my own business called Ancestry Investigations right here in Austin, Texas, where I’m lucky enough to share space in a historic building near the state capitol with my two self-employed besties: Serena, a fashion blogger, and Josephine, who’s a translator.

If you head south from my office, past downtown Austin and over the Congress Avenue Bridge where our famous bats roost, you’ll reach the eclectic SoCo district and Travis Heights. That’s where I live in a one-bedroom condo and get regular visits from NPH.

Oh, no, not the award-winning actor. Neil Patrick Housecat. He belongs to my condo manager and is a big, fluffy tabby with personality for days and a thing for sneak-attacking my ankles.

I’ve gotten off topic again, though. What’s my favorite part of being a genealogist? Gosh, it’s hard to name just one, but I really love it when, after searching through censuses galore, more family records than you can shake a stick at, and oodles of online databases, I think I’m going to keep hitting dead ends. And then. . .in some small corner of history. . .with an offhand mention in a will, a letter, or random newspaper story. . .I finally, finally find my client’s long-lost ancestor.

Wow, the fabulous chills that go up my spine! I follow it up, of course, with a high five to myself and a happy dance in my chair (which Serena and Josephine can imitate with embarrassing accuracy).

So, I’m sure you can imagine my excitement when I discovered Gus Halloran’s great-great-grandfather Seth didn’t die in an accident like the Halloran family has always believed. Nope, Seth Halloran was downright murdered in 1849.

And you know what? It was a contract hit ordered by a man known only by the initials “C.A.”

Even more exhilarating, I was able not only to locate the journals of the one man who witnessed Seth’s murder, but also narrow the list of nineteenth-century C.A. suspects down to two men: Cantwell Ayers or Caleb Applewhite, who happens to be the ancestor of U.S. Senator Daniel Applewhite.

Who, unfortunately, happens to be the rival of my client, Gus.

Yeah, well, then I made the mistake of taking some strong sinus meds before celebrating with Gus, his family, and three lethal martinis. I’m afraid I became a bit of a zombie myself and it caused me to forget I attended Gus’s impromptu press conference, whereby Gus, without proof, accused Senator Applewhite’s great-great-great-granddaddy of murdering his great-great-granddaddy.

I didn’t give myself a high five for that one, for sure.

My embarrassment is nothing, however, to the fact my on-camera revelation of Seth Halloran’s 1849 murder ended up leading to something much more tragic: the murder of my former boss and friend, who I believe was protecting a clue to the identity of the real C.A. Worse still, the murderer is now threatening Senator Applewhite, and I’m not okay with any of this.

Anyone who’s met me knows I’m a stubborn person, so it shouldn’t be surprising I’m determined to find out what from the past caused my friend’s murder, even if it means working with kinda-grumpy, seriously irritating, history-professor-moonlighting Special Agent Ben Turner of the FBI.

Though I will admit Agent Turner is very smart and does look decidedly Harrison-Ford-as-Professor-Jones cute when he wears his tortoiseshell glasses. . .

Good thing I’ve made it part of my daily job to annoy Agent Turner until he stops trying to keep me from looking into the past for clues. Shaking some family trees might lead to a bad apple dropping down, but if my sleuthing into people’s lineages helps to protect others in the here and now, then let me introduce myself again:

Hi, I’m Lucy Lancaster, and I’m the ancestry detective.


Giveaway: Comment below for a chance to win a print copy of Murder Once Removed. U.S. entries only, please. The giveaway ends March 21, 2019. Good luck everyone!


You can read more about Lucy in Murder Once Removed, the first book in the NEW “Ancestry Detective” cozy mystery series, released March 19, 2 019.

S.C. Perkins’ Murder Once Removed is the captivating first mystery in the Ancestry Detective series, in which Texas genealogist Lucy Lancaster uses her skills to solve murders in both the past and present.

Except for a good taco, genealogist Lucy Lancaster loves nothing more than tracking down her clients’ long-dead ancestors, and her job has never been so exciting as when she discovers a daguerreotype photograph and a journal proving Austin, Texas, billionaire Gus Halloran’s great-great-grandfather was murdered back in 1849. What’s more, Lucy is able to tell Gus who was responsible for his ancestor’s death.

Partly, at least. Using clues from the journal, Lucy narrows the suspects down to two nineteenth-century Texans, one of whom is the ancestor of present-day U.S. senator Daniel Applewhite. But when Gus publicly outs the senator as the descendant of a murderer—with the accidental help of Lucy herself—and her former co-worker is murdered protecting the daguerreotype, Lucy will find that shaking the branches of some family trees proves them to be more twisted and dangerous than she ever thought possible.

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About the author
S.C. PERKINS is a fifth-generation Texan who grew up hearing fascinating stories of her ancestry and eating lots of great Tex-Mex, both of which inspired the plot of her debut mystery novel. Murder Once Removed was the winner of the 2017 Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery competition. She resides in Houston and, when she’s not writing or working at her day job, she’s likely outside in the sun, on the beach, or riding horses. Visit her website at scperkins.com or follow her on Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and Facebook.

All comments are welcomed.