By Blood Possessed (Transforming Government)

Rating:
Summary: Very much like the best of Barbara Michaels
Review: A young woman, in a dead end job that she hates, receives a mysterious message from a lawyer in Virginia regarding a possible bequest. It sounds like an old formula, and it is, but the author adeptly keeps the reader interested. This book has everything, mystery, romance, and the ghost of a long dead relative. The characters are very well drawn and the mystery was difficult to solve. Enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Very much like the best of Barbara Michaels
Review: A young woman, in a dead end job that she hates, receives a mysterious message from a lawyer in Virginia regarding a possible bequest. It sounds like an old formula, and it is, but the author adeptly keeps the reader interested. This book has everything, mystery, romance, and the ghost of a long dead relative. The characters are very well drawn and the mystery was difficult to solve. Enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: A first time novelist with heart and humor
Review: Elena Santangelo is a very good writer and she has written an outstanding book with two equally compelling stories. Pat Montello, who needs a change, discovers that she is in line to inherit a house in rural Virginia from a 91-year-old woman who wants it to revert to the family that was almost wiped out in the Civil War. Pat knows only her Italian and Sicilian heritage, but finds an almost psychic connection with a woman who lived during that time. Santangelo combines a "puzzle" from the Civil War with a modern day mystery and does it in superb and page-turning style with just the right amount of humor from the oft irreverent Pat. Highly recommended for mystery fans, historical fans or those who crave a well-crafted, beautifully written story with a great plot.

Rating:
Summary: BY BLOOD POSSESSED...Good To The Last Drop!
Review: Elena Santangelo's first novel is a winner. This book is about a woman who unexpectedly gets a reprieve from her dead-end job and mundane life by learning of an opportunity to inherit some land in northern Virginia. City-bred Pat Montella learns to love the Virginia woods where elderly Magnolia Shelby lives, and who plans to leave Pat the land in her will. Pat decides to check it out by spending a week with Miss Maggie, which is a condition of getting the land. Pat is inexplicably drawn to the land in ways she cannot fathom at first. Later, it becomes clear to her. The author uses a most interesting technique of having 2 first-person characters in the book, one from the current day (Pat) and another from Civil War times. The reader is drawn into the connection between the two, with a few surprises along the way. I love Civil War fiction, so I expected to like this book. I didn't just like it, I devoured it. This book has humor, Civil War history, romance, and suspense. Thank goodness the flyleaf tells us Santangelo is already working on a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Good writing, weak plot
Review: First the good things,--the story was well-written and well-paced with a nice balance between the contemporary and flash back portions. Other elements were mixed, many of the characters were well-done, but a few were cartoons, despite the last minute efforst to show the "real" under surface of the type. The heroine strayed to often into the realm of spunky/perky for my taste, but if that appeals to you, you will like this. The contemporary plot line was weak and far fetched with little real mystery, no detection and no real clues given except for one major instance of suspect behavior.

Rating:
Summary: Now for something completely different
Review: I don't like historical mysteries. I don't like mysteries about time travel. I don't like flash backs and forwards. I'm not a Civil War buff. But I LOVED By Blood Possessed by Elena Santangelo. If you like the aforementioned items, you might love this book even more.

The main protagonist is from the Philadelphia area and, while she's surprised to discover Civil War era Virginia ancestors, she's well aware of her Philly Italian heritage from the Montella's, Giamo's etc.

Pat is refreshingly real. She hates her job. Her life is going nowhere. Her description of the outcome of her five dating relationships (only two getting beyond date #1) is worth the price of the book.

This is a story short on terrifying suspense, yet I couldn't put it down. I think there's a big future for Pat.

Rating:
Summary: Knocked my socks off!
Review: I should know better than to start a mystery novel before bedtime. Especially one as gripping and well-written as BY BLOOD POSSESSED. After several sleepless hours, completely engrossed in the novel, I realized that Elena Santangelo is definitely a force to be reckoned with. And no, I did not get to sleep until I finished the book.

This, her first mystery novel, not only delivers one of the best stories I've read, but skillfully weaves both the historical "back" story with the contemporary primary storyline with seamless integration, combining them into a finished, polished tale that will hold its own among the best of the genre. Santangelo bears watching - she may just sneak up and snatch an award or two. Brava!