cover image No Less in Blood

No Less in Blood

D.M. Pirrone, Five Star, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-59414-927-6

An 1893 missing-person case has unexpected repercussions more than a century later in Pirrone's intriguing debut. In Birch Falls, Minn., 12-year-old Linnet Chapman is waiting for her mother, Grace Chapman, to join her and her grandfather, Jackson Schlegel, who looks after but doesn't own the Schlegel manse. Sadly, Linnet's abusive father, Luke Chapman, has already murdered Grace in Chicago. The 1904 will of mining magnate Andrew Jackson Schlegel, who died in 1907, contains a surprising bequest that could make Linnet very rich, ditto any others who can prove they're blood kin. Enter writer Rachel Connolly, an adoptee in search of her roots, who discovers that her late birth mother was related to the Schlegels. Rachel goes to Birch Falls and meets Linnet, who's found the diary of her great-grandmother, Mary Anne Schlegel, the key to understanding how Mary's disappearance during the Columbian World's Exposition in 1893 connects to Rachel and Linnett. Readers will hope to see more historical crime fiction from Pirrone, the nom de plume of Diane Piron-Gelman. (Feb.)