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Book Review of Disturbing the Dead

Disturbing the Dead
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Mason County, Va - sheriff's deputy Tom Bridger reopens a cold case that
his predecessorhis deceased father, Johnnever fully closed. Ten years earlier, Pauline McClure, a Melungeon woman (of Portuguese and Native American
descent) went missing, and when Tom unearths her bones, he discovers she died of an ax blow to her skull. Pauline had married into a snobbish, wealthy
white family, and the reopening of her case pits local Melungeons against the white establishment. Additional tension arises when Tom's romantic interest,
veterinarian Rachel Goddard hires and befriends Pauline's teenage niece, Holly Turner, whose connection to the tragedy
puts her and Rachel in danger. Both Tom, who's of half Melungeon heritage, and Rachel, who's a recent transplant to Mason County, hoped to leave behind
their respective recent violent pasts. Instead, they're drawn into the center of a lethal drama.