Bloodlines - Touch Not The Cat - Traces - A Scottish - American Genealogy Mystery Novel Series by Thomas McKerley and Ingrid Schippers

Fabulous book review

We received a fabulous book review from Mrs Shirley Curran, retired English teacher from the international community in Geneva, who writes about books on her blog on www.genevalunch.com.

“ I have just thoroughly enjoyed a real page-turner, co-written by Ingrid Schippers and Thomas McKerley. Bloodlines – Touch Not the Cat takes us to the heart of the Scottish Highlands where an American homicide detective, a member of the Macpherson clan, finds herself drawn into a mystery set in motion by her ancestors a hundred years earlier.

Cathy is reluctant to go back to her roots at Ballindalloch Castle, the home of the Macphersons for over 450 years but instinct takes over and she comes face to face with the family mystery, the disappearance of the laird over a hundred years earlier.

Flashbacks take us to the life and times of Alexander Stewart, the castle gamekeeper, ancestor of Catherine’s partner. We share his love for an earlier Katherine Macpherson and witness the evil way he is separated from her by the laird, and suspected of involvement in the inexplicable disappearance of Gordon Macpherson, the laird.

The story is beautifully paced, moving deftly towards the climax that we have been anticipating since Cathy arrived in the castle.

A wealth of Scottish colour fills this delightful sortie into genealogy as, with Cathy, we experience the land of her ancestors: tartan, midges, highland games, even an explanation of that clan motto, ‘Touch not the cat!’ ”