To The Grave (Jefferson Tayte Genealogical Mystery Book 2)

Boy, I really feel like I've met and conversed with the characters in this story. Some were not nice people and others made questionable decisions. All -in-all an intriguing genealogical mystery. Thanks, Mr..Robinson!

This book is overall entertaining, could have spared some pages without too long descriptions that don't really add to the story or the general mood.

In the second of this highly original series that digs up the past with genealogist Jefferson Tayte, a family's sense of decency is challenged by the urgency of love during World War II in Britain. There are enough novels and histories on the war bride theme to last several life times, but this one probes a topic I haven't seen: How do you trace someone, born in a free country, who changed her name, and who would want to keep this secret 70 years later?There must have been hundreds of women who carried the babies of American G.I.s, and who ran from the shame it brought to their mothers. Robinson sketches an innocent but eerie, sunny day memory: it is 1944 and scores of fair English teenage girls line up along the fence around the Yank airmen's encampment, exchanging kisses for nylon stockings. Down the lane a storm is brewing in the home of Philomena Lasseter, whose mother is a fervent Catholic and unfortunately cruel. Now shadows fall on Jefferson Tayte when the genealogist begins to unravel the secret of "Mena" and "Danny," who seem to have disappeared from this earth. His successful rsearch provokes murders. It brings him to the truth about a home for unwed mothers, and leads him to the steps of an insane asylum.Robinson's evocation of these now forgotten institutions recalls the destructive "morals" that are hard now to believe were appropriate responses in that time. Many other details in the story will resonate with older readers, make us nostalgic, even. The way the war played out for one family reminds us that a war changes everyone, and changes us irrevocably.What makes Tayte's investigations especially moving is not that he answers his clients' questions about love and loss, but that his own past remains a mystery to him. He seems not to want to find out why his mother "gave him away." The series concept deepens even further when you know that the author was adopted. While adoption records are not as secret as they used to be, having both known and imagined parents must be one of the more difficult hurdles in the pursuit of authentic self-identity. Robinson is able to put the reader in that place, and thus to engage with the story to the end, when it becomes clear that most individuals can survive tortuous twists of fate, most of which are set in motion by events beyond the control of whole communities and sometimes nations. In the Blood: A Genealogical Crime Mystery #1 (Jefferson Tayte)

It is the second book in the series that I have read. Less satisfying than the previous one. Excellent writing, I mean I really couldn't put the book down. I read most of it in one day. But at the end I am left with a sad feeling. And not very satisfying. Later thoughts into the plot I found many holes.Spoilers following this line:What happened after Mena escaped? Why did she return? What was Eddie's plan for her? Why didn't her sister come tmo claim her from that awful "home"?It's a rather horrible story of cruelty and lost life.

Steve Robinson's books just keep getting better. Inspired by his own family history, To the Grave is told in alternating chapters and time frames. In the here and now, we watch Jefferson Tayte as he wades through old documents and speaks to as many of Mena's family members and contemporaries as he can. As interesting as Tayte's chapters are, I was quickly hooked by young Mena's story during World War II. Mena's smart and good-hearted, but her family life leaves much to be desired. Her mother is judgmental, cruel, and completely immersed in her religion. Her father is a very loving but passive man who's learned to survive with a modicum of peace by letting his wife have total control over the household. Mena's older sister is already doing her bit for the war effort, and Mena wants to do hers, too-- especially since that would mean she gets to escape the oppressive atmosphere at home.So many mysteries center around long-buried secrets that genealogists make perfect sleuths. It's refreshing to watch someone solve a crime by researching old documents and talking to the elderly rather than with guns, handcuffs, and forensics. Jefferson Tayte still manages to find more than his share of danger, but he's learned from his experiences in the first book. (Oh oh. I mentioned the first book in the series. Do you have to read it in order to make sense of this book? Absolutely not. To the Grave stands alone very well.) What I found exceptionally well done was Mena's story. Robinson made that era come to life, and I almost regretted the times when the action switched back to Tayte.After reading To the Grave, I'm really looking forward to the next book, The Last Queen of England. I wonder if I can sign on as Jefferson Tayte's research assistant?

I enjoyed the first Jefferson Tayte story so bought the next two. This, the second, is well written with no noticeable grammar or spelling errors (something not all Kindle books can boast). However I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been published by Mills and Boon, a genre that doesn't really appeal to me at all.The story is fundamentally about a young English girl who falls for a GI during the later years of WWII. Tayte is brought in to find out if she's still alive by her daughter who never knew her birth mother. However it seems that someone else is also looking for the mother and prepared to kill lots of people in the process. It's that bit that leads me to drop stars for this story, since the reason for this killing spree is completely over the top and more than a little unlikely, as is its ending.OK, it's a novel so we're allowed to suspend belief, however since such a lot of the story is completely believable, feasible and so well drawn it's a shame that it is spoiled by such an unlikely fundamental plot.

I have had this sitting on my kindle for a while and only just got round to reading it, and was so glad I did. I found it extremely engaging and moving at times. I had that fairly familiar ring of books of this type where events far in past which seem quite insignificant at the time, and in some cases were done with what the person then believed was good intentions reverberate down over time and get magnified. I understand why some people found the violence in the second half of the book a little disappointing, but it didn't retract from a thoroughly good read for me. I finished it in just over day, which is always a good sign as is me immediately buying the next book in the series. It reminded me a lot of some of Kate Morton's books, so if you like those I doubt you would be disappointing with this. Its part of a series, but there is absolutely no need to read the previous book before this. Its stands alone perfectly well.

Ideally, I would love it if Amazon allowed you to have a flashing star in your rating because I'm not really sure if this one is a three or a four. The problem is that it's really two books, and while both are well written and absorbing in different ways, they don't really sit all that well together. The framing story, involving genealogist Jefferson Tayte, is just as billed, a thriller revolving around a seventy year old mystery. When his client, an adoptee anxious to track down her origins, is sent a suitcase belonging to her birth mother, she employs Tayte to find out if she is still alive and why some mysterious benefactor has chosen NOW to make contact. Naturally, this involves stirring up a hornet's nest of long undisturbed secrets and mysteries which result in our hero...well, you know the drill. These things are formulaic and it's really a question of how well the author can write which makes them worth reading, and Robinson is no slouch in that department. His prose is spare, his chapters are short and his pages keep turning. So far, so good.The problem, such as it is, is with the meat in the sandwich, so to speak, by which I mean the narrative which describes the events of seventy years ago. Essentially, it constitutes that second book I was talking about. In his first Tayte novel, Robinson did something similar, but he balanced it much better than in this story. Here, the tragic Second World War romance which forms the basis of the mystery, takes up over half the book and, although very well written, reads like the kind of story which would be of more interest to a reader of romantic fiction, rather than a cynical old sod like me. To be honest, if I hadn't had the audible version, which was expertly narrated by the estimable Simon Vance, I doubt I would have finished this. It did get a lot better -- ie, more interesting to me, insensitive thicko that I am -- in the second half, when the contemporary story regained the ascendancy. This was punchy and absorbing, and although it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out who the villain was, it carried me nicely to the finish.Not a bad effort, but it falls between two stools. Let's hope Robinson gets the balance more attuned in the next Tayte outing.

The first JT book was about an American genealogist tracking down a family who vanished in the UK and being assailed by someone who wanted the secret kept, various bodies accumulating. This JT book is about an American genealogist tracking down a girl who vanished in the UK and being assailed by someone who wanted the secret kept, various bodies accumulating. Spot the differences.Having said that, its a good wartime romance and heartbreak story which can stand alone, so why the need to introduce a gunman and violence which, in my opinion, spoilt a well drawn story? I'm also rather puzzled as to why an American is employed to work in the UK - his flights, hotel, hire car etc must cost a bomb so why not use an indigenous expert?But ignoring the gunman, the rest of the story is sound. You really feel for the poor girl who made an unthinking error and paid for it all her life, and the '44 setting of the main historical action feels authentic. So please, drop the thriller bits and stick to the history.

A second incredible tale from Steve Robinson in the Jefferson Tayte series. I was captivated by the first book of this series and was blown away by the second. What an incredible tale of family mystery, intrigue and cover up and murder. I note that a few reviewers have said that the murders were committed for very little motive, but I know that some murders have been done for lesser motives. Although in my opinion there were distinct reasons that would make some people turn to desperate measures in this story.However I was on the edge of my seat as bit by bit the details were exposed layer by layer as JT searched through the information available to him. I also identified with him in the frustrations as some of his research came to a seemingly dead end. Although the truth does come out eventually to a very poignant ending. The eventual outcome was not what some of the characters in the book hoped it would (although there was a good twist eventually).This is so true to life. My husband and I found some hidden truths in our respective families and felt compelled to research. So I have personally experienced some of these difficulties and frustrations that are detailed in the book. In our experience we both found what we were looking for. For my husband the outcome was quite pleasant for me it was unpleasant. We didn't know what we would find but it was necessary to pursue the trails anyway. Remember the old saying "be careful what you wish for you just may get it".Possibly one of the reasons I love this series is because of personal experience, or maybe I would have loved it anyway. Either way I recommend it.