The Baron and the Bluestocking (25 page)

This skillfully crafted novel explores the long-term effects of personal tragedy in haunting flashbacks of Annalisse's former life — flashbacks that are interwoven with a passionate romance and reveal a person entirely different from the woman Dennis thought he married.

But as each revelation increases the emotional gulf between them, Dennis's investigation of a toxic waster incident ignites the wrath of a former political ally and an industrial firm that will go to any lengths to cover up a shocking crime.

Can Annalisse reconcile her past and present before it's too late? And can Dennis find a way to save his family and the town they've called home?

GENEALOGICAL MYSTERIES

Cankered Roots - New Edition

Couple a a spunky young widow with an even spunkier, rifle-toting grandmother and you have RootSearch, Inc., a genealogy business that frequently turns up murder! Alexandra Campbell (spunky widow) thinks that as they do genealogy for a living, it is high time she finds out her family secret. Something went wrong in her family during her adolescence, changing her mother from a Chicago North Shore matron into an alcoholic and a doting father into a workaholic. The moment she graduated from High School, she was sent to the Sorbonne in Paris with a generous bank account and instructions not to return.

It is now fifteen years since she has seen her parents, and she intends to lay the ghost that has separated her family for good. However, as usual in Alex's unpredictable life, things do not go as planned. After an acrimonious fight with her once beloved father, she leaves with only a wallet-sized photograph of a woman she knows nothing about.

That night, Alex's father is killed. Bewildered and grieved that her family can never be whole again, she soon finds out that she is the chief suspect in the murder. With the unflappable Briggie (rifle toting grandmother, Johannah Brigamina Poulson) at her side, she uses all her new genealogical skills, and (with the help of Briggie's deer rifle) discovers a secret so bizarre that she finally understands why her parents wanted her far away and safe.

Join Alex and Briggie in the first of their hair-raising adventures!

Of Deadly Descent - New Edition

Where do You Start Looking for a Missing Ancestor

Without a Name

With Descendants You Share an Inheritance?

At their last known address—The Argonne Forest, France, 1919.

In their previous adventure, Alexandra Campbell and her business partner, Brighamina Poulson, discovered a branch of Alex’s family that was previously unknown. Because of wicked deeds in days gone by, a soldier in World War I who should have been part of Alex’s family was lost. In fact, he was so lost, he didn’t even know his own name!

Through a series of coincidences (and we all know there are no coincidences in genealogy!) they track their man from France to Oxford, and even give him a name. However, upon their arrival in Oxford, before they even contact the man’s descendants, a member of the family is pushed under a bus right before their eyes! It soon becomes evident that the death was connected to the coming legacy. Who knew they were coming to Oxford with news of a fortune? What role does the mysterious Frenchman Etienne play in the dastardly doings? And what about Charles Lamb, a very eligible bachelor, also an heir to the estate?

Briggie is lost without her deer rifle and can’t keep up on the box scores of her Kansas City Royals baseball team. She doesn’t think much of Oxford, either, and is worried about the effect of this center of secular wisdom on Alex. She is even more worried about Charles Lamb.

Tangled Roots - New Edition

Who's Telling the Truth?

Holly Weston, a teenager locked down in drug rehab, claims she's never used drugs, but that her incarceration is all a plot by her parents. Why? To establish her mental incompetency so she won't discover that they've embezzled the fortune she is about to inherit. Her grandmother, a slightly dotty widow, claims that her father was murdered when she was nineteen, after which she dyed her hair platinum, went to Hollywood, and met Clark Gable (and her husband). Holly's mother, a rigid, disapproving figure, tells Alex and Briggie both her her mother and daughter are lying, forbidding them to dig any further among the family's roots.

What in the world are Alex and Briggie up to now? Holly's counselor has hired them to do a genogram or psychological pedigree, to find where the family secrets are hiding. She is convinced Holly's mother is frightened for Holly. Why does Mrs. Weston refuse to acknowledge her father's murder? What is she so afraid of the RootSearch, Inc. team discovering about her family?

What does the family history have to do with: another murder, Holly's disappearance, and the strange trio of middle-aged men who are following Briggie and Alex and her mother?

Alex accepted this case in order to be back with her mother for a while, now that she has emerged from her rehabilitation. A fifteen year estrangement has rendered them strangers, and she feels it her duty to try to mend the rift. Her mother proves to be "pluck to the backbone" as Alex's British suitor, Charles, says. The four of them soon become mired in Holly's unexpectedly tangled roots, with surprising off-shoots surfacing all over the country. Encountering both danger and new friends, they also take responsibility for a slew of eccentric pets. Amidst the action, Alex's love life takes a turn that both baffles and scares her.

Join our genealogical sleuths as they strive, as always, to find out the real truth that is at the "root" of this family's dysfunction and fear, enabling it to take the first steps to healing.

Poisoned Pedigree - New Edition

What would you do if you were told you had “Bad Blood”?

Hire a genealogist, of course! Kerry McNee, a famous balladeer of Scots-Irish folk music wishes to marry and have a family, but has a superstitious fear of the words an old lady in her Ozarks hometown once whispered: “You should never have children, Kerry. You will pass the bad blood to your children.”

Kerry hires Alexandra Campbell and Brighamina Poulson (RootSearch, Inc.) to look into this mystery for her in the wilds of Southwest Missouri. She never dreams she is putting them into mortal danger from individuals who will kill rather than reveal the many secrets that have been held for generations.

No sooner do Alex and Briggie begin their investigation, than violence begins with the murder of the “Keeper,” a woman who knows the past of every resident of the town of Trotter’s Bridge. The genealogists call in reinforcements—Alex’s fiance, Charles, Briggie’s elderly swain, Richard—while Kerry and her psychologist, Daniel, (a former flame of Alex’s who is determined not to let her go) decide to join the hunt for the killer as well.

The danger only escalates, along with major trouble in Alex’s relationships with Charles and Daniel. She is unable to untangle her personal life, as murder has never stalked these genealogists so closely, nor been so nearly successful as it is in the woods and caves of this town that time forgot.

The Hidden Branch - New Edition

Heirs, Heirs, Heirs – Which one of these Armenians is the killer?

Could it be Vazden Mardian, II—the World Class surfing champion, with the piratical eye and the tattoo of an ancient Armenian coin on his arm? The coins belonging to the murder victim were the motive for his murder.

Or was it Henry Arkesian—the fanatical professor with an indefatigable lust for anything pertaining to his heritage? He was angry that the victim was leaving his ancient Armenian artifacts to a museum.

Or, perhaps, Gorgeous George, Henry’s brother—an Orange County Estate lawyer with a penchant for Ferraris and expensive real estate who is forever in debt?

Alex endeavors to keep her mind on the case so that the murderer will not benefit from his crime against Paul Mardian, the billionaire inventor of the pop-top can. Feelings run high amid this passionate, attractive family who live the style of the Orange County, California wealthy. However, while trying to find the perpetrator, she almost loses her life (again), and faces a crossroads in her personal life with a due amount of angst.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

G.G. Vandagriff is a traditionally published author who has recently gone indie. She loves the Regency period, having read Georgette Heyer over and over since she was a teen. She also has a great many fans of her earlier books, particularly the award-winning
The Last Waltz
and
The Only Way to Paradise
, who are anxious to read sequels! And her mystery fans are always urging her to write another book featuring her wacky genealogical sleuths, Alex and Briggie.

Obviously, G.G. likes to genre hop! In addition to her fiction, she has written two nonfiction works. She also writes a twice-monthly column for the on-line magazine Meridian as well as being a guest columnist for the Deseret News.

She studied writing at Stanford University and received her master's degree at George Washington University. Though she has lived many places throughout the country, she now lives with her husband, David, a lawyer and a writer, on the bench of the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. From her office she can see a beautiful valley, a lake, and another mountain range. She and David have three grown children and four delightful grandsons.

After playing with, reading to, and doing crafts with her grandchildren, her favorite pastime is traveling with her husband. She goes to Italy once a year for medicinal purposes (and research—read
The Only Way to Paradise
). She has recently added Istanbul and Barcelona to her list of favorite places. G.G.’s favorite classic authors are Tolstoy, Charlotte Bronte, and Jane Austen. Her favorite contemporary authors are A. S. Byatt, John Fowles, Marisa de los Santos, Emily Giffin, and Candice Hern.

Visit G.G. at her website http://ggvandagriff.com, where you can see pictures of her travels, read excerpts of her books, and sign up to receive her newsletter. You can also read her blog,ggvandagriff.com/blog, and sign up to follow. She has an author page on Facebook (G.G. Vandagriff-Author) and on Goodreads and Amazon. She loves to hear from her fans!

Acknowledgments

My excellent editor, Susan Helene Gottfried, gives me help all along the way, especially when I am discouraged. And then she does a terrific edit at the end. Thanks, Susan!

Thanks also to David, my husband for his very tangible help all along the chain of book production.

Copyright © 2013 by G.G. Vandagriff.

Cover design by Carol Fiorillo

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the publisher through its website, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator.”

Orson Whitney Press

Provo, Utah 84604

http://www.orsonwhitneypress.com/

Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

Book Layout ©2013 BookDesignTemplates.com

The Baron and The Bluestocking/ G.G. Vandagriff. -- 1st ed.

ISBN 978-0-9836232-7-4

Other Books by G.G. Vandagriff

Regency Romance

Lord Trowbridge’s Angel

Rescuing Rosalind

Miss Braithwaite’s Secret

The Taming of Lady Kate

The Duke’s Undoing

Historical Fiction

The Last Waltz—New Edition

Women’s Fiction

The Only Way to Paradise

Pieces of Paris

Suspense

The Arthurian Omen—New Edition

Foggy with a Chance of Murder

The Arthurian Omen

Alex and Briggie Mysteries

The Hidden Branch – New Edition

Tangled Roots—New Edition

Poisoned Pedigree—New Edition

Of Deadly Descent—New Edition

Cankered Roots—New Edition

Non-Fiction

Deliverance from Depression

Voices In Your Blood: Discovering Identity Through Family History