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Grave Undertaking
Undertaker Barry Clayton series #3

by Mark de Castrique



      Buryin’ Barry used to be a cop, but now he has swapped the city life for the Appalachians and the family funeral business. His father has Alzheimer’s and he is needed to run things, but sometimes cases still come his way. Moving a grave a few days before Christmas should be one of the least complicated tasks Barry faces, but somebody else has been buried in the grave too. They have been shot dead, and still have their driver’s license, so identification is not a mystery, but why does the dead man have a photo of Barry’s girlfriend Susan Miller in his pocket?

I enjoyed Dangerous Undertaking, the series opener enough, but this entry shows that it was just a warm-up, even if a particularly good one. This is the kind of detective mystery that I like the best. Cozy touches, but not overdoing it, a portrait of a particular place and its people, engaging characters, details about their lives, a dash of romance, and a jolly good plot. This book has all these things in spades and then some. Also in here you can find a touching and accurate picture of living with an Alzheimer’s sufferer, the day-to-day business of an undertaker, and a wonderfully tangible portrayal of life in the Appalachians. There is so much in this admirably brief novel, you practically have to put an elastic band around it to stop all the story from bursting out. My kind of detective story? Just say my kind of contemporary fiction.

The Book

Poisoned Pen Press
February 2007
Paperback
1590582705
Crime - Contemporary, North Carolina (Appalachians)
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Excerpt
NOTE: Christmas read

The Reviewer

Rachel A Hyde
Reviewed 2007
NOTE:
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