Grave Concerns - Hardcover

REBECCA TOPE is the author of fourteen previous crime novels. She lives on a smallholding in Herefordshire, with a full complement of livestock, but manages to travel the world and enjoy civilisation from time to time as well. Most of her varied experiences and activities find their way into her books, sooner or later. For example, bee-keeping, milk recording, spinning, arguing, undertaking and gardening. She is also currently the membership secretary of the Crime Writers' Association.

This British whodunit features an unusual hero in Drew Slocombe, a former nurse who has become an undertaker and opened an alternative cemetery where he promotes ecologically sound, environmentally friendly (and much cheaper) burials. But just as business is picking up, the body of a woman is found in a shallow grave in an undeveloped part of the cemetery. She wears only a cotton shroud and an unusual necklace, with little else to identify her. When word about the discovery gets around, Drew receives a call from Genevieve Slater, whom Drew met (and was attracted to) when he and his wife wanted to buy the same house as Genevieve and her husband. The contact sets off warning bells for Drew, but when Genevieve offers him 2,000 to find out if the dead woman is her mother, Drew can't resist. Tope's fourth book is competently written, with offbeat characters, an inventive plot, and some biting commentary on the funeral business. A natural pairing with the genre's only other undertaker-sleuth, Tim Cockey's Hitchcock Sewell, although this series is less given to madcap humor. Emily Melton
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