Sandra Parshall, Disturbing The Dead

Disturbing The Dead

Sandra Parshall

Poisoned Pen, March 2007, $24.95, 332 pp.

ISBN: 1590583787

Ten Years ago, Pauline McClure, a rich and desperate Melungeon widow, vanished from her country estate and hasn't been heard from or seen since. She was a child of poverty and racism but the wealthy McClures accepted her because she gave them an heir.

In the present on top of the mountains a skeleton is found and dug up. Near the first burial site another skeleton is discovered. The dental records of one of the skulls match Pauline's; police Captain Tom Bridget is out to find the killer.

His father was obsessed with the case because it was his first that he failed to solve. When he goes to question Pauline's mother, Mrs. Turner, he runs into her grand-daughter Holly. Holly's mother left the family though she supposedly sends money from time to time. When Tom mentions to veterinarian Rachael Goddard how great Holly is with animals, the vet hires her on the spot even though her grandmother tries to guilt her into staying and her father, Mr. Shackelford, the local drug supplier, uses threats to make her return to her grandmother. Both Holly and Rachel refuse to be intimidated but someone really wants Holly out of the way because she is shot at, the office is torched and her family tries to physically get away from Rachel. Tom is determined to protect Rachel but when another skull is found and he begins to hear rumors about his father's relationship to Pauline, he finds his objectivity is not what it should be.

Sandra Parshall is a wonderful storyteller who creates a small rural backwater town where race and class divisions still exist and people of mixed blood are subjected to prejudice. Her characterizations are fantastic, especially Tom, who is half Melungeon heartwarming and sensitive willing to give Rachel all the time she needs to figure out what she wants even as he investigates a mystery that creeps closer to home.

Harriet Klausner