Cankered Roots: A Mystery By G. G. Vandagriff Deseret Book, 1994. Softcover: 224 pages. ISBN: 0-87579-833-0 Suggested retail price: $10.95 (US)
Reviewed by: Ardis Parshall

Alexandra Borden Campbell (Alex) is a recent convert to the Church, and has become so interested in genealogy that she earns her living as a paid researcher. One problem: She cannot trace her own family history, because her parents, from whom she has long been estranged, refuse to talk about her Borden ancestors. They have gone to extraordinary lengths to destroy all clues to the identity of Alexs grandfather. Alexs investigation of her past seems to be the cause of a murder, and the more she uses her genealogical skills to probe that crime and her familys secrets, the worse the situation grows.

Cankered Roots is almost entirely a plot-driven detective story. Although the author gives her main character a very complex personal history, we do not see much of Alexs interior life except when her thoughts or emotions trigger the next plot event. Otherwise, Alex tends to forget how upset she is for hours or days at a time -- then suddenly chokes up again just when it is necessary to the plot that she remember. But so many plot events happen as she and her friends zip from archive to rest home to isolated cabin to boathouse to hospital to department store to psychiatric facility that you might not miss the interior life. I kept reading to see what would happen next, and to finally understand why Grandfather Bordens background was such a mystery.

The idea of a genealogist/detective was a real draw to me, since I love both genealogy and mystery novels. Alex has decent genealogical knowledge, too -- she knows where military records are stored, and how to use the Soundex, and which cities host branches of the National Archives. But for a paid researcher, she keeps forgetting to research. Example: She cannot find her grandfather on the Illinois Soundex for 1900. Does she check the 1910 Soundex? Does she check in surrounding states? Does she look at old city directories? Knowing that Grandpa was a WWI soldier, does she look at the draft registration records or seek other military resources? Knowing that he inherited the family meat-packing business, does she look for corporate or tax or probate records concerning that? Nope, or at least not until circumstances force her into it.

Instead, she spends her time chasing such unlikely clues as the identity of the woman in the old photograph. Of course these tangential clues turn out to be the essential ones, and she has uncanny good fortune in solving obscure puzzles, while forgetting to look into the easily available resources of the normal genealogist. When she does use those resources, she is incredibly lucky: None of the several soldiers files she needs was destroyed in that terrible fire in the St. Louis warehouse -- the one that destroyed most of the World War I records (including my own grandfathers). Faced with too many possible solutions to one puzzle, Alex relies on intuition and narrows the possibilities down to three, one of which is the right one, of course. (Come to think of it, I've known so-called genealogists who constructed pedigrees the same way . . .)

One of the conventions of the detective novel is that, while red herrings are allowed, all major and most minor plot points have to be resolved in the end. Cankered Roots forgets to do that. For instance, Alexs purse is stolen under circumstances that beg to be explained (why that person? what did he expect to find? why was her purse downstairs and not in her bedroom, anyway?), but we never get an explanation. Oh, and although her wallet was taken with the purse, when the plot demands that Alex be separated from her friends, she is out shopping and pays for a dress with a check. Since the whole story takes place while Alex is out of town with only her purse and a single suitcase, why wasnt her checkbook missing with her purse? Small point, maybe, but it violates the rules of the detective genre.

There were a few other goofs that distracted me, too. Alex motions to a policeman to pick up the phone by the other bed in her hospital room so he can listen in on Alexs phone call. (Since when are two patients' phones on a party line?) One character refers to another as an entrepreneur from Las Vegas, so immediately everyone assumes that he is with the Mafia. (This Las Vegas girl -- Clark High School, 76 -- can play with stereotypes, too. Since most of the action in Cankered Roots takes place in Chicago, should I assume that every local character is an Al Capone-like gangster?) One of Alexs assistants is a lawyer, who seems to find no scheduling difficulties in flying out of town at a moments notice, and who, without hesitation, engages in activities that would get him disbarred, maybe jailed. Finally, when the Big Secret is revealed, the Bad Guy turns out to be someone who conveniently produces the one document that can explain everything, and who is someone who, in reality, would probably be the last person to take care of the dirty work with his own hands.

Mormon details in the story appear with only a little self-consciousness. The characters go to Church on Sunday, and Alex receives a blessing when she is injured -- all very naturally and without fanfare. When the characters react to the healing after the blessing, or explain why Mormons do genealogy, it comes across only a little stiffly.

     Well, part of our faith is that we believe we can be sealed forever to our families in the temple. Even if theyve died, we can do the sealing ordinances by proxy. Thats the whole reason we do genealogy -- to create eternal families.
     Daniel was studying her face. I can see why that would be important to you, he said gravely.
     One day I will be able to be sealed to both my parents and through them to Grandfather.
     And Stewart? he asked. Can you be sealed to Stewart, too?
     I always planned to be. Alex looked down at her lap and concentrated on interlacing her fingers. You have to wait for a year after youve been baptized. My year will be up in December.

G.G. Vandagriff is an accomplished genealogist. Ive read her nonfiction Voices in the Blood and found it very moving, as well as revealing of the authors skills in the case studies it presents. She is a natural to be drawn to using a genealogical detective, and is quite eloquent in explaining just why Alex wants and needs to know about her roots:

[I]t was useless to try to make sense of her parents behavior. For whatever reason, they didnt want her, and she needed to accept that. But they couldnt deny her a heritage.
     Grandfather was the only other family she had known, the only person she could visualize being with in eternity. Genealogically, she must start with him and go back, linking the generations, discovering the voices in her blood. Perhaps some healing would be possible. Maybe at last she would feel connected with the universe instead of hanging out in space all alone.

G.G. Vandagriff is also obviously a fan of mysteries, and makes frequent reference to Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Agatha Christie. She has been subtle and skillful (more so than in her main story) in laying the groundwork for a sequel, which I plan to read this afternoon. So, while the author would have benefitted by having an editor or reader point out holes in the story and violations of detective novel conventions, the story was good enough that I want to read more. On to Of Deadly Descent, and the further adventures of Alex.

Ardis Parshall
AEParshall@aol.com