Andorra

Death Has a Thousand Doors by Patricia W. Grey

Family complications abound in this mystery set in the little-known Pyrenean country of Andorra. Jane Burns, an Australian accountant, is a recovering alcoholic with a troubled past. When she receives a letter inviting her to visit Andorra for the winding up of her grandfather's multi-million dollar Trust, she jumps at the opportunity to leave her humdrum life and troubles behind. She expects to stay with her half-sister, Pearl, a photo journalist who moved to Andorra to escape an abusive marriage, but on her arrival Pearl is missing without explanation. The only clue to her whereabouts is an unlikely welcoming gift to Jane of a bottle of champagne. Jane and Pearl's father, Charles, an aloof historian, becomes Jane's ally in the search for Pearl. In a twisted web starting from the founding of the Family Trust after the Second World War, and involving financial misdoings, kidnapping and tobacco smuggling, Jane and Charles try to discover which threads will lead them to Pearl, and which are simply the detritus of her daily life as an investigative journalist. On the way, Jane meets a sympathetic village policeman. She also meets Pearl's lover, a prominent Andorran politician. But are these two men helping or hindering the investigation?

My Thoughts:

Andorra is yet another country that I didn't even know existed.  Andorra sounds like a kingdom from a fairy tale story.  For some reason I am always surprised to hear of a country for the first time.  Didn't I have geography classes in highschool? I loved getting to know this micro-country between France and Spain.  I would love to visit there someday.

The book is a mystery and started out being very descriptive of the country and quite fun to read, but I felt like it fell flat in the end.  You hope for a great ending with momentum and twists and I didn't get that from this story.  I mostly enjoyed it for what I learned about Andorra.

My Ratings:

Well written:  Up until the end

Easy to follow:  Yes

Held my attention:  Yes

Would I recommend this to a friend:  hmmm. . . maybe
Did it represent the country: Yes

Content:

Sexual Content: You know that the couple is sleeping together, but it does not go into details except for one sentence.  May be inappropriate for teenagers.

Violence: mild

Genre: Mystery

Pages: 316