Murder Once Removed by S.C. Perkins is the first book in the NEW “Ancestry Detective” cozy mystery series. Publisher: Minotaur Books, coming March 19, 2019.

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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While researching her client’s genealogy, Lucy discovered that his ancestor had been murdered and through diligent searches, finds the long ago killer. When her client accuses a senator, someone wants to keep that history in the past and now murder is afoot in present day along with mischief.

Fast-paced drama set the tone in how well this story was going to be told. The mystery was well-written with the right amount of intrigue to keep me grinded in all that was happening on the page with clues dispatched here and there. There was sufficient number of suspects and I had a good time watching this drama play out as one by one, the suspect pool lessened until the possibility became clear as to the killer’s identity. The witty repartee between Lucy and her friends provided some comical interlude. All the key players were nicely vetted giving enough of their background to understand how they fit in our heroine’s circle, villain included. A good plot, solid story line, great narration and secondary cast help rounds out this likable story. This is a delightfully engaging romp blending genealogy, murder and mayhem and I look forward to the second book in the series.

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FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.