Nathan Dylan Goodwin

Forensic genealogist Morton Farrier looks into a 1911 disappearance for a dying man who wants to know what happened to his grandmother's sister. While Farrier explores archival, online, and other resources such as interviews, someone is determined to make sure he doesn't find out. He fairly quickly determines his life is endangered, but he does not know the threat's source. Readers also learn the story of Mary, the woman who disappeared, along the way with the dual storyline of which I'm not a fan. It did work a little better in this book than in many.… (altro)

I read this latest in the Morton Farrier series with interest as, at the end of the previous volume The Spyglass File, the character was about to travel to the USA and try to find his father, the eponymous character of the title here. Morton, a genealogist, had discovered as an adult that he was adopted by his mother's brother and wife, and that his 'aunty' was really his mum. His father was an American who had visited England as a young lad and never knew that he had fathered a child. For Morton's father disappeared shortly after a fire which burned down the family home and killed his father - or so it seems.

The story was as the last volume, quite a good page-turning read, where the author switches between time zones - in this case, the 1970s when his father, Jack, was a young man starting to suspect that his parents have been living a lie, the 1950s when Jack's parents were participating in events that would lead to eventual tragedy, and 2016 when Morton is in the USA researching, while on a 3 week holiday with his tolerant policewoman wife Juliette.

I enjoyed this novella almost to the end, but then there was what I can only consider a cheat - Morton had found a record of his grandfather's divorce from his first wife, and he even protests such when he is eventually told there was no divorce, but the person who tells him does not explain how that record could exist. It would have made sense if Jack's parents had been in a witness protection programme - then false records could have been created. As it was, I just couldn't credit the reasons lying behind the behaviour of Jack's parents, and it was all a bit too melodramatic. Hence only a 3 star rating this time.… (altro)