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Fiona Mountain
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Bloodline (Natasha Blake Ancestor Detective) Kindle Edition

by Fiona Mountain (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 28 ratings

"Cinderella is in the bluebell woods at Poacher's Dell...."

The anonymous note means nothing to ancestor detective Natasha Blake. Then one of her clients, an enigmatic old man who had commissioned a family tree of his granddaughter's boyfriend, is shot dead at his isolated farm in the Cotswolds, just as shocking facts about the past are brought to light. Is there a link?

Seemingly unconnected yet haunting stories begin to emerge, like slowly developing photographs: two young soldiers---one German, one British---playing football; two young women---inseparable friends until a fatal mistake tears them apart; and the eerie echo of a child in an English country house.

It is these individual lives that becomes the clues in Natasha's investigation, ghostly fingerprints that she must use to solve a cold-blooded, blue-blooded crime, hidden for generations in the bluebell woods at Poacher's Dell.

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  1. Print length
    325 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Minotaur Books
  4. Publication date
    July 28, 2015
  5. File size
    3.4 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. At the start of British author Mountain's superb second mystery to feature Natasha Blake (after 2005's Pale as the Dead), an oddly reticent client, Charles Seagrove, has hired the 29-year-old genealogist to research the family history of his granddaughter's boyfriend, John Hellier. Shortly after receiving a cryptic one-sentence note in the post, Natasha, who's become a complete workaholic since the breakup with her own boyfriend 18 months earlier, finds Seagrove shot dead on his Cotswolds farm. At considerable personal risk, she begins a quest into the past that leads to the discovery of horrifying family secrets and a link between the elderly victim and one of the more chilling aspects of Nazi philosophy. A dramatic conclusion, an intelligent, spunky heroine and credibly human and lovable supporting characters lift this refreshing, fast-paced whodunit. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Natasha Blake is a 29-year-old genealogist based in the Cotswolds. Right there you have a loaded-with-history setting and a career with tremendous potential for an amateur sleuth. In this second in the series, an elderly and very wealthy amateur genealogist gives Blake the assignment of tracing a family tree back to 1750--but no further. The assignment makes Blake uneasy about the genealogist's motives, since the family tree he wants traced belongs to his granddaughter's fiance. Matters are further complicated when Blake discovers a murderess hanging in the family tree. Then, when she keeps an appointment with the old man, she finds him murdered in his garden. Blake's investigation ultimately uncovers a long-hidden crime and raises the ghosts of her own past, mysterious to her since she is (fittingly) an orphan. A mystery as involving for its genealogical background as for its plot and characters. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00Z60NADI
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Minotaur Books (July 28, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 28, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.4 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 325 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 28 ratings

About the author

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Fiona Mountain

Fiona Mountain

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Fiona has written five novels, which have been published around the world, including America, Canada, Australia, Italy, Germany, Holland, Japan and Thailand.

Fiona’s first novel, 'Isabella' tells the haunting love story of Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian and his cousin, Isabella Curwen and was shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award. It was followed with 'Pale as the Dead' and 'Bloodline', which combine history with mystery and feature 'ancestor detective', Natasha Blake. 'Bloodline' is the winner of the prestigious Mary Higgins Clark Award from the Mystery Writers of America. It’s also been optioned by Leonard Goldberg, (producer of TV classics such as Charlie's Angles and Starsky and Hutch).

'Lady of the Butterflies' (also published as Rebel Heiress) is based on the true story of Lady Eleanor Glanville, the pioneering butterfly collector. The Glanville Fritillary is named after her, but she is best remembered for the fact that her relations overturned her will on the grounds that no sane person would 'go in pursuit of butterflies'. 'Cavalier Queen' is an epic historical novel about the lives and loves of Charles I's queen, Henrietta Maria, an English 'Gone With the Wind'.

Fiona grew up in Sheffield and moved to London aged eighteen where she worked for the BBC, in the press office for Radio 1, handling publicity for presenters including John Peel, Mark Radlcliffe, Pete Tong, and Simon Mayo, traveling with the Radio 1 Summer Roadshow and hanging out with rock stars! Fiona lives in the Cotswolds with her family.

Her new book, 'The Keeper of Songs' will be published in 2021.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
28 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Back to the War
    Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Very interesting story, based on the family history of one of the characters. Includes English aristocracy and Eugenics swirled in with murder and Nazis. Great story, very complex, keeps you glued to the book.
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  • Beverley Strong
    4.0 out of 5 stars Lebensborn
    Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2006
    Young, attractive genealogist, Natasha Blake has been commissioned by a charming but strange old man, Charles Seagrove, to research the family tree of his granddaughter, Rosa's boyfriend. Her search reveals a murderess and a series of criminal types in the boy's background, causing Charles to forbid Rosa to have any further contact with the boy.When Charles is murdered by a shotgun blast, his son Richard asks Natasha to continue with the genealogical search as he feels that there are answers to be found in Charles's past history, which was bound up with his farm and a number of Land Army girls who worked for him during WW2. What follows is a fascinating series of revelations, all connected to the Nazi party's policy of Lebensborn, the plan to populate Germany, and eventually the world, with genetically and racially pure children, all of Aryan descent. It's a chilling indictment of racial purification and all that it entails. It was an interesting read with a heroine whose exploits I intend to follow in her other books.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • AMOVIEBUFF
    3.0 out of 5 stars A decision to make
    Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2006
    I actually liked this second novel better than the first. For some reason it was much easier to read.

    Mountain takes a good premise and runs with it using genealogy to get to the heart of the matter. Natasha Blake is one of those needy people you want to slap on the side of the head and say "get on with it girl" in her personal life but professionally she is excellent.

    If there is a problem in these mysteries it is Mountain's indecision as to whether she is writing a mystery or a romance novel. She has to lose those hokey younger couples which she insists on sending off into the sunset living happily ever after. I guess the reader is suppose to see this as a reflection of some kind of Blake's sorry personal state. For the most part they are ridiculously uninteresting and frankly not endearing as hard as Mountain tries to make them to be. If anything they add an amaturistic slant to the story. If Mountain wants to write romance than write a romance,otherwise stick to the mystery and how Blake gets to the solution-she does that very well. These side characters (including her dysfunction family) for the most part are irritating distractions. A good mystery writer knows that when it comes to crime there are few happily ever after endings.
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  • Bonnie J. Boschert
    5.0 out of 5 stars Bloodline
    Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2007
    Verified Purchase
    Another great one by Fiona Mountain. If you are as interested in genealogy as myself or even an amateur sleuth this is a great read!
    One person found this helpful
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  • N. N. Light
    5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant British mystery and a must-read!
    Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2015
    This book is an amazing mystery filled with twists and turns that you didn’t see coming. The main character is Natasha Blake and she is a genealogist by trade. She uncovers people’s ancestors and her latest client is quite mysterious. He wants a family tree done on his granddaughter’s boyfriend. What she uncovers leads to his mysterious death and Natasha must help the police find the true killer before the killer finds her. A brilliant British mystery and a must-read!
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  • A real pageturner
    2.0 out of 5 stars Good premise spoiled by heavy-handed storytelling
    Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2006
    Fiona Mountain had a good idea for a mystery with Bloodline, but she ruined it with her ham-fisted way of telling a story. She seems never to have heard that the cardinal rule of good writing is "Show, don't tell", but repeatedly hits the reader over the head with the points she wants to make. She insists on calling attention to the parallels between Natasha's life and the mystery she's investigating, as if she (the author) were afraid a reader wouldn't be clever enough to notice them on her own. For example, in describing a scene that takes place in a garden, she says, "The exposed and tangled roots of the weeds were pale through the covering of dark soil", and then feels compelled to add, "The analogy of roots being ripped up wasn't lost on her." Trust me, if you make it to page 262 (where this passage appears), the analogy wouldn't be lost on you either, even without the authorial intervention.

    In my review of Mountain's previous book (Pale as the Dead), I commended her for not letting her research get in the way. Unfortunately, that isn't the case with this book. Too often, reading it felt like reading the author's research notes. She even has one character -- an elderly woman who isn't an academic -- say that, in a conversation which took place many years ago, another character "quoted J. Hooper Harvey's Heritage of Britain". I find it hard to believe that the character would have remembered not only the title of the book, but also the author's full name, right down to the "J. Hooper". Sounds to me more like the author, fresh from the library, speaking.

    The Natasha Blake mysteries are a bit like Sarah Stewart Taylor's Sweeney St. George mysteries (O' Artful Death, etc.), in that both series are about a young woman with an unusual job that causes her to get involved in solving mysteries from a different angle. If that concept sounds intriguing to you, I would recommend that you spend some time with Sweeney St. George. After reading Bloodline, I can't say the same for Natasha Blake.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Christina Lockstein
    5.0 out of 5 stars 2nd in genealogy mystery series. Fun read!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2006
    Bloodline by Fiona Mountain is the second book in the Natasha Blake genealogist mystery series. After an elderly man hires Natasha to investigate the family background of his granddaughter's fiance, he is mysteriously murdered. The man's son hires Natasha to find out why. Mountain does a much better job this time of connecting with the reader. Natasha's connections to her friends and family deepen and develop as well. There are loads of subplots, including Natasha's insomnia which occasionally makes her take actions that had me shaking my head in disbelief. The story takes an unexpected dark turn as Natasha finds out that sometimes finding the answers to questions only creates more questions with answers no one wants to hear. This was a fun read that made me think a bit too. I look forward to the next in the series.
    3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 26, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Good clean book for secondhand I will enjoy reading
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  • Damaskcat
    4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting background
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 12, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    Natasha is a freelance genealogist and she receives a commission from elderly Charles Seagrove to draw up a family tree. Needing the money she accepts the task against her better judgement. Before long there is a murder and Natasha realises there are damgerous secrets lurking at the bottom of this muddy water - secrets people are prepared to kill to preserve.

    Natasha is battling with her own family problems and her serious and energy sapping insomnia and wonders whether she has taken on task which is beyond her capabilities. The book presents a fascinating puzzle and a lot of interesting information about doing research into family history. It isn't a fast moving book but if you are interested in the effect the past has on the present and enjoy reading about people dealing with psychological issues then you will enjoy this. It is a thoughtful and thought provoking story.
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  • Sandradan1
    3.0 out of 5 stars Genealogy is at the heart of this storyline
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 28, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    This is a combination of genealogical mystery, murder investigation and historical examination of the Nazis. ‘Bloodline’ by Fiona Mountain, the second Natasha Blake mystery, covers a lot of ground from its seemingly innocuous starting point when Natasha hands in her report to a client. But nothing is mentioned lightly in this book, everything has a meaning. Natasha is not sure why Charles Seagrove requested this particular family tree, but knows he is unrelated to any of the people featured.
    The real reason for Seagrove’s interest in genealogy is at the heart of this storyline. There are many dead ends and I admit to losing track of who was who at one point but Mountain ties all the loose endings together so there is clarity at the end. At first, Natasha is simply conducting another genealogical research but everything changes when she receives an anonymous note, ‘Cinderella is in the bluebell woods at Poacher's Dell’. Once her client is murdered with his own shotgun, Natasha feels threatened as well as puzzled.
    There are many storylines to be connected including Charles Seagrove’s grand-daughter Rosa and her father Richard, Second World War land girls, and two soldiers – one German, one English – who meet in the trenches during the Christmas truce of 1914. This is a lot to handle but Mountain manages the complicated history with ease and I enjoyed trying to work out the solution.
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  • Windy Wendy
    4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable mystery
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Second of this author's books to feature Natasha Blake "Ancestor Detective". As with the first one, Natasha is doing her normal job of researching family history and get involves in a murder investigation with roots in the past. Quite a complicated plot but easy reading although I was annoyed by a few small errors.
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  • Cleopatra
    4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating idea for a story involving family history
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 17, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    I thought this an original idea for a story.

    It was a great to read on holiday as the story moves along at a pace and was very interesting.

    I'm not going to repeat the story line here as others have already done that but if you're interested in nature versus nurture and family history give this a go
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