Brynn Bonner

Professional genealogist, Sophreena McClure, and her business partner Esme Sabatier are called in to help uncover the identity of a decades-old corpse buried in a glass coffin that was recently unearthed on a local farm property. When the body of a murdered woman is found at the site of the disturbed grave a couple of days later, Sophreena & Esme decide to investigate the more recent crime, too.

There is not a whole lot of intrigue or mystery to be had here. The general solution to the decades-old mystery of the man in the glass coffin is pretty obvious early on; and—when the specifics are actually revealed—it’s not all that shocking or surprising.

The solution to the present-day murder is likewise not all that suspenseful or shocking either…ho, hum.

Picture Them Dead suffers from a failing that is all too common in contemporary ‘cozy’ mystery series…there is not a whole lot of detecting going on. Sophreena and Co. go about haphazardly investigating their local puzzles and murder mystery, but they don’t really succeed in putting too much together on their own. The solutions just kind of fall into their laps in roundabout fashions and our bumbling sleuths just kind of shrug their shoulders and go, “Oh! So that’s what actually happened! Wow.”

Most of the book focuses on Sophreena’s emotional hang-ups. Is her boyfriend really interested in her? Why is her best friend always so angry with her nowadays? And why doesn’t Jennifer like her? I’m more interested in reading a cozy mystery story than listening in on the psycho-babble insecurities of a middle-aged spinster, so this book really didn’t succeed in holding my interest at all.… (más)

The code NPE in the genealogy world refers to a "non parental event" which basically means the legal father is not the biological father. I have 2 NPE's in my own family. As you can tell, I LOVE Genealogy!!

This story is set around a family that founded their local town in North Carolina, back before the revolutionary war, but some rumours have arisen thatt they now want to have buried. For this family, it would be a huge scandal to discover that they were not who they assumed they were. So when the founding family asks the genealogists to dig into the family tree and make very sure they have found proof that the family were legit, that is when the murders start to happen.

I give this four stars because well, you know how people from these "nuveau rich" families are like. They give themselves airs and think they can act like rich people trying desperately to hide the rumours. Not very likeable characters at all. The genealogists (there were 2 of them) were wonderful!!… (más)