Fiona Mountain Bücher

Die Vergangenheit ist voller Geheimnisse. Manche davon sind tödlich. Einen Stammbaum erstellen: Eigentlich ein ganz normaler Auftrag für die Familienforscherin Natasha Blake. Doch dann wird ihr Auftraggeber Charles Seagrove ermordet. Gerade als Natasha auf die Geschichte zweier ‚Landgirls’ stößt, die im Krieg auf Seagroves’Landgut gearbeitet haben. Beide waren schwanger, beide sind damals spurlos verschwunden … „Eine unvergessliche neue Stimme“. (Daily Mail)

Born into a world seething with treachery and suspicion, Eleanor Goodricke grows up on the Somerset Levels just after the English Civil Wars, heiress to her late mother's estates and daughter of a Puritan soldier who fears for his brilliant daughter with her dangerous passion for natural history - and for butterflies in particular. Her reckless courage will take her to places where no woman of her day ever dared to go. Her fearless ambition will give her a place in history for all time. But it is her passionate heart which will lead her into a consuming love - and mortal peril.

Natasha Blake is a detective with a difference. She's an ancestor detective, an ambitious young genealogist with a passion for history, whose choice of career is partly driven by the mystery of her own roots. Natasha's investigations are a matter of life and death, involving secrets, scandals and supernatural happenings, forgotten tragedies and buried crimes. The trails she must follow lead her from her Cotswold home to ancient houses, deserted chapels, overgrown graveyards and into cyberspace. Her clients could be anyone for whom the past affects the present ¿ the haunted, the hopeful, or the just plain curious. The disappearance of a young girl, Bethany, appears to be linked in some way to Lizzie Siddall, the haunting, ethereal Pre-Raphaelite model and artist, wife of painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Lizzie's tragic life was cut short by an overdose of laudanum. Was it accident or suicide? Why is Bethany so obsessed with her, and at the same time so determined to put herself beyond the reach of her lover, Adam?

This is the first stunning installment of a riveting new mystery series that uncovers the secrets of the dead. "Pale as the Dead deals with the mysterious death of Lizzie Siddal, a real and fascinating historical figure whose beauty and tragic life have made her into a legend. (She was the model for the famous painting on the cover of the book.) Lizzie's death has always been shrouded in mystery. She is perhaps best known for the macabre story that tells of her husband, the Pre-Raphaelite artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti, having her coffin dug up to retrieve some poems he had buried with her. When the coffin was opened, Lizzie was said to be as beautiful as the day she died. "Pale as the Dead is the story of how the disappearance of a young girl, Bethany, appears to be linked in some way to Lizzie Siddal. Our detective is Natasha Blake, a complex young genealogist with a passion for history. Natasha's career choice is partly driven by the mystery of her own roots--she was abandoned in the hospital as a newborn. Her mother disappeared hours after giving birth, leaving a false name and address and a note on the back of a picture postcard that said simply, "Her name is Natasha." Natasha is hired by the missng girl's lover, Adam, whose own life seems to have plenty of dark shadows. An old diary and famous graveyard lead Natasha into more danger than she bargains for--some people will do ANYTHING to keep a secret!