MOTHERLAND: A Memoir

Marin has written a mystery-like work about her mother's life, with the author playing a latter-day Sherlock Holmes and her father acting as the slippery double agent who does all he can to avoid giving a straight answer. The trail begins when Marin is 29 years old and starts having dreams about her mother, Mildred, who died of breast cancer when Marin was 14. She'd been sick for years but never told Marin, and the two didn't see each other during the last months of Mildred's life. Mildred died alone in California, 2,000 miles from the family's Illinois home. Like any good newspaper reporter (Marin is a former staff writer for the Orange County Register ), she can't rest until she cracks the story—which, in this case, involves figuring out how her Baptist mother ended up "dying in the loveless embrace" of her father's religion, Christian Science. Marin's odyssey brings her to Mildred's Tennessee hometown; to Chicago, where Mildred worked as an artist and raised her children; and to Arden Woods, Calif., the lonely retreat where Marin's father sent his wife to learn about his faith. Throughout this memorable tale, the missing piece is always Marin's self-centered father, whose 30-years-younger girlfriend raises suspicions of her own. Although the detective story doesn't tie up neatly in the last chapter, it's a satisfying family saga. Agent, Nina Collins . (Apr. 6)