Second in the interesting Deadly Deadlines mystery series featuring obituary writer Winter Snow, GRAVE WORDS can be taken as a standalone. This story is set around Halloween time, in Ridgefield which is close to a lake, an hour from NYC. Winter used to work for the local paper until it got amalgamated with a bigger title. Now she works closely with a town funeral home, providing an obituary service to relatives. Any amateur sleuth can see that she’s in a good position to sniff out clues.
A few fires occurred which were probably arson, and a man known as Chester thought to be a homeless man, is found a victim in a smouldering apartment. Chester was quite well-liked, as he did odd jobs, and Winter’s friend Carla who manages the funeral home is grieved to think he may have died as a result of arson. Winter is asked to write an obituary, but nobody seems to know much about Chester, not even his last name.
Two people investigating the fires are Scoop, otherwise known as Kevin Blake, a digitally skilled young journalist who was retained in the newspaper merger, and the man Winter is dating, police officer Kip Michaels. Other than these people, it must be said that almost everyone we meet seems to be a senior person. There’s Winter’s uncle Richard, who kindly gave her his lakeside cottage and their elderly neighbour Horace. She gives a talk to active retirees about writing a living legacy document so that later on, relatives will find obituaries easier. This may sound morbid, but I guess we lose touch with people, or time erases memories of special achievements, especially those from pre-website days. Maybe the author Gerri Lewis thinks this age group is under-represented in crime fiction, or she feels this is her likely readership.
There are dogs. A Pyrenees puppy, which will grow very big, and a Shepherd, big already. The lovely lakeside is a perfect place to let them roam, but for occasional wildlife that is, and between the dogs and Scoop’s cats, people have reasons to go visit homes to feed pets.
I enjoyed the read, but some aspects didn’t quite gel, such as Winter telling everyone but the police about her sleuthing, and I don’t see a journalist, or his editor, who isn’t mentioned, publishing the detail in the fire story which gets Scoop into trouble. Vivid scenes are set in the funeral home, but nothing ghoulish, and everyone is professionally respectful of the deceased. GRAVE WORDS by Gerri Lewis has got me keen to read her first book, called The Last Word.
In the second installment of the Deadly Deadlines mysteries, obituary writer Winter Snow faces her biggest challenge yet when the body of a homeless man is found in a burning building and her best friend is the main suspect, perfect for fans of Eva Gates and Kate Carlisle.
Winter Snow has had it! With her business in a death drought, her best friend Scoop implicated in a string of arsons, and an obituary listing Winter herself as deceased, her life is heating up. But just as she’s trying to cool things down, she receives her newest assignment: an obituary for Chester, a homeless man found in a burning building.
Promising the local funeral home manager that she will have the obituary by the deadline, Winter is stonewalled at every turn, failing to discover Chester’s last name, or where he came from. When it is discovered that Chester was murdered and that the fire was set to cover it up, all fingers immediately point to Scoop. Not only is Scoop a person of interest in the arsons, he was also the last person to see Chester alive.
As more nails are pounded into Scoop’s coffin, Winter’s uncle Richard hopes to help by inviting the notorious town gossips, The Nosy Parkers, to a neighborhood food fest. Unfortunately, the breadcrumbs they toss set murder in motion.
More determined than ever, Winter must figure out the twists and turns of the case to clear Scoop’s name, putting her on a deadly deadline to solve the murder and avoid meeting the same grave consequences.
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy