‘Blood-Tied’ by Wendy Percival

Published by Robert Hale,
30 May 2008.
ISBN: 978-0-7090-8563-8

When Esme Quentin is called to the hospital where her sister Elizabeth has been taken having been found beaten unconscious, Esme is unaware of the secrets surrounding her sister which will put her (Esme) in danger. The first anomaly is the locket the police hand to Esme as having been found at the scene. Esme recognises it as the locket left to Elizabeth as the elder grandchild – the locket that holds miniature pictures of their maternal grandparents. Only it doesn’t, the photographs inside are of two people whom Esme has never seen before.

The police say that a witness saw Elizabeth having an argument with a man, but neither Esme nor Elizabeth’s daughter Gemma can throw any light on the meeting. Going through Elizabeth’s papers to find some clue, they happen upon a legal document that sends Esme’s world into a spin.

With Gemma in denial, Esme turns to her friend Lucy to help her unravel the truth, little knowing that her pursuit will lead her to uncover a crime and put her in mortal danger.

I enjoy books dealing with genealogy, and this is an excellent example – some good characters and a plot that keeps one turning the pages. Recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

Wendy Percival was born in the West Midlands and grew up in rural Worcestershire. After training as a primary school teacher, she moved to North Devon to take up her first teaching post and remained in teaching for 20 years. An impulse buy of Writing Magazine prompting her to start writing seriously. She won the magazine's 2002 Summer Ghost Story Competition and had a short story published before focusing on full length fiction. The time honoured ‘box of old documents’ in the attic stirred her interest in genealogy. When she began researching her Shropshire roots she realised how little most of us know about our family history.  This became the inspiration behind the first Esme Quentin novel, Blood-Tied.  Wendy continues to be intrigued by genealogy, its mysteries and family secrets and writes about this in her family history blog.

 http://www.wendypercival.co.uk