Murder Once Removed — S.C. Perkins

The captivating first mystery in the Ancestry Detective series, in which Texas genealogist Lucy Lancaster deals with murders in both the past and present.

According to her friends, Lucy Lancaster, Austin, Texas genealogist, has never been drunk. Tipsy, sure, but drunk? No way. So when she arrives back at her office from a three-martini lunch three sheets to the wind, it's a momentous occasion. Even more momentous is what she's announced on live television while blotto: Texas senator Caleb Applewhite might be responsible for the murder of Seth Halloran.

Of course, Lucy is a genealogist, so the murder in question would have taken place in 1849. But the descendants of the two families, Daniel Applewhite and Pearce Halloran are, are in the midst of a competitive race for the US Senate, and this news does nothing to calm tensions. Lucy is determined to either prove or disprove Caleb Applewhite as the murderer, but when her curiosity puts her at the scene of another murder―this time, in the present-day―she realizes that the branches of some family trees are too gnarled and twisted to unwind.