The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

Book Review: The Deserter’s Tale

by Nathan Dylan Goodwin. Self-published. 2023. 147 pages.

Here, Nathan Goodwin sends his protagonist, the seasoned forensic genealogist Morton Farrier, out and away from his cozy home in historic Sussex, England, to the crowded, expansive and world-wide gathering of genealogists whose calling brings them to the nexus of genealogy, the Mormon-founded city of Salt Lake City, Utah, in the arid Great Basin of the United States. Genealogy professionals, scholars, and enthusiasts annually attend the grand and venerated gathering known simply as RootsTech. 

Farrier will be a featured speaker for RootsTech, and his presentation preparations are incomplete. Furthermore, he has been tasked with the usual work of solving a family mystery, the familiar position genealogists finds themselves in as their experience and expertise accrue “fame” throughout the family, and relatives come calling with queries and questions they expect the genealogist to embrace with ardor and enthusiasm, but which actually induce chagrin and annoyance at the prospect of unpaid and unsolicited work. 

In the comfortable family warmth of Farrier’s household hangs a vague, gray cloud of ‘Why’ over the consciousness of Farrier’s wife Juliette. Whenever she pauses to consider the baffling desertion of her great-grandfather of his family, her family, her heart reverberates with the sorrow of lingering questions, the bitterness of broken family ties, and the nebulous feelings of loss that a century-old family disappearance conjures.

As Farrier prepares to depart England for his arduous trip to the States, his unease is magnified, not so much over his scheduled presentations to hundreds of eager classroom attendees, but rather, by an unresolved romantic relationship, years in the past and nearly forgotten, but soon to be uncomfortably refreshed when he likely meets up again with an old flame, as her own RootsTech participation brings her to the same corridors as he will soon be navigating through. Meeting his bygone love will leave him no choice but to come to terms with his emotional memories; their parting was irresolute, could their meeting bring settlement?

Fans of Nathan Dylan Goodwin will recognize this tenth book in the Morton Farrier series. We’ve enjoyed his books for some twenty years now. His novels weave back and forth between the dual timelines of the past and present, doling out revelations in the back story just at the right moments, before returning to present-day suspense. Tangled webs of mystery and unanswered questions stymy Farrier’s search for truth, and keep us, the readers, turning pages far into the night.