There’s no reverse on the hearse . . . For Tallulah Graver, marrying wealthy Waldo Phillips seemed like the best way out of the family business, the Graver Funeral Home. But when her marriage falls apart and Tallie is left with next to nothing, she turns to cleaning houses to make ends meet. As humbling as it is to tidy the mansions of the snobby socialites she used to call friends, at least … call friends, at least she doesn’t have to be around dead bodies. Until . . .
She discovers one of her employers lying in a closet with a knife sticking out of her chest. This unpleasant shock seems to be part of a web of weird experiences: Tallie’s friend Gina’s shop is broken into, her ex is stun-gunned where it hurts the most, and now she’s receiving flowers from the dead woman. Granted the deliveryman is handsome, but seriously, that’s enough to cast a pall over anyone’s day. Now Tallie needs to dig deep to clean up this mess—before she finds herself in a grave situation.
“You’ll be cheering as the clues pileup in this creative cozy mystery.”
—New York Times bestselling author Lynn Cahoon
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This was a wonderful lighthearted cozy, perfect for the summer and exactly what my stressed-out soul needed! Misty does a fantastic job painting colorful characters and it was FUN to romp through the mystery with them, especially protagonist and sleuth Tallie. Can’t wait to move on to Book 2!
I wasn’t sure about this at first, I mean come on its about a funeral home. I have to say I really enjoyed it . The characters were GREAT even if I had some suspicion about one in particular. Turned out they were okay but I had the killer figured right . Glad I took a chance and read it!
I won this book from Goodreads Giveaways. I was not required to give a favorable review. This is the first book I have read from Misty. She is a wonderful writer. This book had me guessing who the real bad person in the story was. From having her ex-husband zapped with a stun gun in the not so mentionable place to have a woman she despises killed. And then to have a friend of her brothers come back into her life and maybe for more than trying to help her. The murder and mayhem keeps you from wanting to put the book down and find out who was actually the bad guy. I look forward to more reading of Misty’s books.
Humor is subjective and hard to write, but Tallie’s smart mouth and pick yourself up and dust yourself off attitude struck me just right. I wasn’t in the mood for a deep, serious read and this book made me chuckle every night before heading to bed. I enjoyed it so much, I bought the second book in the series and I’ve already started it.
Cremains of the Day by Misty Simon is the first installment in A Tallie Graver Mystery series. Tallulah “Tallie” Graver has fallen hard after the dissolution of her marriage to Walden Phillips III. She is now cleaning homes and working part-time at Graver Funeral Home, the family business. Tallie left her vacuum at Darla Hackersham’s home and returns to retrieve it. She discovers feet sticking out of a closet and finds Darla with a knife sticking out of her chest. This is just the beginning of strange events plaguing Tallie. Max Bennett, an old friend of Tallie’s brother, has returned to town and seems to be following Tallie. He is handsome, but it unnerving. She finds Katie tied up in Gina’s shop and her ex-husband down in the alley. What is going on? Tallie needs to unearth the truth before she ends up the next customer at her family’s business.
Cremains of the Day is not what I expected. I was hoping for a mystery series that centers around the Graver Funeral Home (it would have been unique). Tallie dislikes the family business and is eager to avoid it (I was eager to avoid her). I thought the characters lacked development. The details readers are given on Tallie are mostly about her marriage and what has happened since it dissolved (along with the fact that she really dislikes the family business). I found her very cliché (another clumsy, down-on-her luck divorcee who does not get along with the local chief of police). She is newly divorced from a disdainful man whom she let take advantage of her in the divorce settlement (of course). There is little information given on the town and local businesses. The mystery is medium level with some nice misdirection. There is mild foul language in Cremains of the Day along with some crude references to Tallie’s ex-husbands privates (they get zapped with a stun gun). The next book in A Tallie Graver Mystery series is Grounds for Remorse (I will not be reading it).
Cremains of the Day by Misty Simon is the first book in a new cozy series and I thought it was a great start.
The protagnoist is Tallie Graver a divorced woman in her late 20’s who married a rich man who turned out to be a creep. Tallie is strong, smart and determined to make it on her own. She got very little from her divorce but she has turned herself around after acting like a snobby witch while married. Ms. Simon did an admirable job of introducing this small town and the characters in great detail without bogging down the pacing of the story. There were plenty of twists and turns as Tallie tried to figure out who “did it” as she searched for clues, ducked the Sheriff who had put her at the top of the suspect list, and weeded through gossip. Max Bennet was a character of note as he was at first suspicious but then revealed as an IRS agent on the trail of her ex-husband’s tax fraud. All of this kept me turning the pages so that I finished this book in an afternoon. I definitely want to read the next one in this series.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book from Kensington via NetGalley. All of the above opinions are my own.