I recently read Stephen Molyneux's mystery, "The Marriage Certificate", and truly enjoyed reading it. It reminds me that all of us have those deep dark secrets, and we never know what can happen to bring those secrets out into the open.

Many times I have walked through a local antique store window shopping at the beautiful antiques. The items reminds me of visiting my grandmother’s house – the furniture, lace, dishes, quilts give way to memories of my grandmother, while old jars, televisions, tools and books of my grandfather. There is usually a box that is filled with old letters, pictures and post cards that I love to rummage through. I wonder who are these families and/or people. What kind of lives did they live and who are their descendants. Does their family know these items are in this store? Would they want them?

It is these memories that I thought of as I read Stephen Molyneaux book, “The Marriage Certificate”. This book starts out with Peter Sefton noticing a marriage certificate on the wall of an antique shop, buying it, and then doing the research on the couple married. This research takes him on a journey through his characters lives that make it hard for us to put this book down. This book leaves you captivated and when you think you know what will happen next, the author totally takes you by surprise by going down another different mesmerizing path. The history interweaves makes this story even more interesting and believable.

The range of emotion I felt as I read this book was one of happiness and sorrow. We meet women who struggle with family and career and the hard decisions they had to make. The men that made strong career choices and also their commitment to honor as they stood by the women they loved. But, the commitment and honor also was with the main character, Peter; he made decisions at the end that was noble to the descendants he researched. The ending of this book took me totally by surprised and left me hoping another book will come out giving me more details on the life of Rosa.

One of the things about knowing a book is great is if it wants me to read a part two, or another book by the author. I immediately looked to see if Stephen Molyneux had another book; hoping one is in the works! It also will motivate me to do something. I am challenging myself to visit an antique store, and find something that I too can research. Can I find a marriage certificate, a postcard or item that I can go home and research? What mystery will I learn?

Stephen writes, “Follow their story, through Peter’s research and find out how, with investigative skill and a certain amount of luck, Peter finds himself pulled along to uncover a series of sad and tragic events… events, which connect the marriage certificate to a modern day mystery. But… there’s a complication. In his quest to complete the family tree he learns that he has competition. It’s not just a matter of pride; there’s money at stake too. Should he the amateur give up, or can he really beat the professionals at their own game?” I highly recommend reading this book to find out! I did and thoroughly enjoyed it!

More great insight to this book can be found here:

Background to this book

Part 1.1 of The Marriage Certificate - Sample

Photos of places mentioned in the book

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book to do an honest review.