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The Mortician's Daughter
Ginny Lavoie has just been suspended from the NYPD when she gets a late-night phone call and hears two awful words: "Danny's dead." That message-a plea from her childhood best friend to solve the brutal murder of her teenage son-brings Ginny back to the scruffy, gray New England mill town she left many years ago. Now trying to uncover the secrets and lies hidden by an insular community, she confronts suspects ranging from a homeless Vietnam vet to Manhattan hipsters to Danny's own stepfather...and runs into childhood ghosts and new demons every step of the way. After the town's first murder in recent memory gives way to a second, then a third, Ginny must race to find the killer's identity-before she becomes victim number four.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
November 1, 2009
One of my $1.00 bargain books. Another one I'm glad I only spent a buck on.
This whole book was like watching Kanye West speak. You know what's coming. Poo.
Small town girl turns into big city cop. (novel concept) Under suspension from the NYPD when her friend's son is murdered back in small town, she goes to investigate and:
1. clashes with the local small town cops who despise her big city ways.
2. runs into her high school sweetheart. Before long they are humping like rabbits.
3. Has the brake line cut on her car. (ORIGINAL AS FUCK!) She thinks her car is just old. It doesn't dawn on big city cop that someone wants her to butt out and go away.
And honestly, there was no real tie-in to her being the mortician's daughter. I was hoping for much more on that front. (just because I am indeed the Mortician's daughter.)
Quick read for a dollar, I can't complain too much.
This whole book was like watching Kanye West speak. You know what's coming. Poo.
Small town girl turns into big city cop. (novel concept) Under suspension from the NYPD when her friend's son is murdered back in small town, she goes to investigate and:
1. clashes with the local small town cops who despise her big city ways.
2. runs into her high school sweetheart. Before long they are humping like rabbits.
3. Has the brake line cut on her car. (ORIGINAL AS FUCK!) She thinks her car is just old. It doesn't dawn on big city cop that someone wants her to butt out and go away.
And honestly, there was no real tie-in to her being the mortician's daughter. I was hoping for much more on that front. (just because I am indeed the Mortician's daughter.)
Quick read for a dollar, I can't complain too much.
February 9, 2017
Hace mucho no leía una novela de este genero y creo que fue genial hacerlo con este libro, una novela llena de misterios, suspensos, secretos y asesinatos (muchoooos) que logro hacerme morir de nervios y ansias. Un libro super entretenido que se lee rápido y te ayuda a pasar un buena rato y una posible resaca.
April 5, 2014
This was hard to rate since the prose was at times elegant, the plot engaging but the people, beige. Still I forged on to see the answer despite the overwhelming amount of backstory.
June 29, 2018
Good summer read! Fast paced mystery with some humor thrown in.
November 16, 2020
Sometimes a quick whodunit is exactly what's needed. I didn't know where this book was going and kept me guessing until the end.
November 5, 2010
I chose the book mortician's daughter because it sounded intresting and looked like it would be good. the book is more like a mystery.it took place in mannhatten. the main character is Virgina she grow up in mannhatten, her dad was a mortician for the little town. she is trying to help her best friend Syona find out wh killed her son. then she finds out that danny the son was murderd by his real fater syona adn pete her husband were not reallly dannys parents paula syonas sister was dannys real mother.Virgina is a cop that lives in Newyork city and sheis suspended for doing something bad for another dirty cop.but when Virgina(or ginny) finds out who kills danny she is shocked and takes him to jail. i really liked the book it was very well writen it just draws you in u want to know more. i would read over and over again thats how good it was.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 4, 2012
After Ginny Lavoie's life as an NYPD cop falls apart because of claims of her being a dirty cop, a plea from her childhood friend, Sonya, brings her home to the town she couldn't wait to get away from a decade ago. The town had changed, as small towns will and the prejudices of small minds will come to the surface. When her car was rigged for her brakes to fail and she ended up in the river, she knew she must be getting close to finding answers to Danny's death. As she follows the trail of his last days, she finds he was trying to discover what happened to his real mother, who had left Danny with Sonya to raise. The town's first homicide in recent memory leads to another and another. As she struggles to find the answers, her old love, Jimmy becomes impossible for her to resist. Will she be able to return to New York after all is over?
January 29, 2023
When it comes to fiction, I like reading virtually anything, if it’s interesting and well-written (or written well-enough; an interesting story can overcome suboptimal writing), but there is something about a whodunit that is like the first cup of hot chocolate in the winter with those absurdly large marshmallows. It’s oddly comforting to figure out who the killer is in a book. So, I love a good whodunit! My “hot chocolate” this weekend was Elizabeth Bloom’s 2006 novel, The Mortician’s Daughter.
Ginny, a detective in the Special Victims Unit of the New York City Police Department, is facing an internal affairs investigation into her association with a known dirty cop, when she receives a 2 a.m. phone call from her childhood friend, Sonya, that Danny is dead. Danny is Sonya’s son, although we’d later learn that Danny is actually Paula’s, Sonya’s older sister, son, but she left Danny in Sonya’s care and presumably ditched town. Given that she seems to be on the fast track to no career in the city, Ginny returns to her old New England hometown, with nostalgia wafting from every corner, including the sensual wafting coming from her high school sweetheart, Jimmy.
The set-up of Bloom’s book reminded me of Mare of Easttown (even though the book came first), where a hard-nosed female detective is trying to uncover a murder in a small town while dealing with her own complicated crap. Ginny isn’t polished, like Mare wasn’t, because she enjoys highly fattening burgers from the local burger joint and hooking up with the aforementioned Jimmy in Danny’s bed, no less. But I like the lack of polish! She’s capable is the point (and more capable than the incompetent local PD), and I also like that Ginny was approaching the case as more or less a civilian since her NYPD badge wouldn’t hold any water in the small town. Although I do find it interesting, now that I’m writing this, that Ginny was tasked with helping her friend solve her son’s homicide when she herself didn’t have experience in that; she was with the SVU, not homicide.
As the book’s mystery unfurled, we learned two key facts: a.) Danny was obsessed with learning about his mother, Paula, and what happened to her; and b.) Paula, the book doesn’t shy away from reminding us, was um, promiscuous with the older men, or any aged-man, around town. Once those two facts came to light, we can started seeing a motive for why someone might want to kill Danny: to prevent him from learning about the fate of his mother. Once that was the case, I had two suspects in mind: 1.) Coach Hank, the high school track coach, primarily because it wasn’t hard to imagine that Paula got her claws into one of the school’s “older men,” and because he tried to steer Ginny off his case by fingering Jimmy as a potential suspect; and 2.) Pete, Sonya’s husband and high school sweetheart. I was right on the first, and partially right on the second.
Coach Hank did kill Danny (and a drug dealer Danny was having sex with; unbeknownst to his family, he was gay or questioning) because he did have an affair with Paula and got her pregnant. Once he learned Danny was his kid, and then he found Danny having gay sex with the drug dealer, he lost his mind and killed him. Pete also had an affair with Paula, but he was infertile, so he couldn’t be Danny’s biological dad.
But there’s more! Because Bloom had a few tricks up her sleeve to try to throw us off of Coach Hank’s trail. It turned out, Paula didn’t run away from the town; she never left because she was murdered while pregnant with a second child. Paula kept “trophies” like a dang serial killer of all of her sexual conquests apparently, and one of those was a custom rosary. That led Ginny to confronting the local priest, who also had sex with Paula and confessed to killing her. Ginny realized, though, the priest confessed because he felt guilty, but wasn’t actually guilty. Instead, it was some high-falutin local banker, who also had sex with Paula, who killed her, then tried to kill Ginny when she was figuring out the case. When all this comes to a head, our up-to-that-point capable and smart protagonist let her guard down long enough for the priest to steal her gun and shoot and kill the banker. That part was a little too much for me. It was enough that the priest was wrapped up in the Paula scandal, but to be fair, Bloom’s clever way of explaining the priest doing the murderous deed was “an eye for an eye.”
The big city cop returning to her Podunk town to solve a murder isn’t a unique premise, but it’s a winning formula, nonetheless! And Bloom wrote it exceedingly well, where the small town wasn’t as pristine as nostalgic memories warranted, where there were fissures everywhere, where those who we once knew in childhood turned out completely different in adulthood, and where even in a small town, we don’t quite know everyone like we think we do. The gun-toting-priest moment aside, Ginny was also a great character because of her capabilities to cerebrally figure things out, which I appreciated those recap moments, to rise to the challenges that faced her (like having her brakes cut, nearly having her throat slashed, and dealing with a love-sick puppy of an old high school sweetheart), and her basic attempt to do the right thing, even up against opposition from some bumbling corners of that Podunk town.
If you also never tire of sipping from the “hot chocolate” well of a clever whodunit, I’d recommend this one!
Ginny, a detective in the Special Victims Unit of the New York City Police Department, is facing an internal affairs investigation into her association with a known dirty cop, when she receives a 2 a.m. phone call from her childhood friend, Sonya, that Danny is dead. Danny is Sonya’s son, although we’d later learn that Danny is actually Paula’s, Sonya’s older sister, son, but she left Danny in Sonya’s care and presumably ditched town. Given that she seems to be on the fast track to no career in the city, Ginny returns to her old New England hometown, with nostalgia wafting from every corner, including the sensual wafting coming from her high school sweetheart, Jimmy.
The set-up of Bloom’s book reminded me of Mare of Easttown (even though the book came first), where a hard-nosed female detective is trying to uncover a murder in a small town while dealing with her own complicated crap. Ginny isn’t polished, like Mare wasn’t, because she enjoys highly fattening burgers from the local burger joint and hooking up with the aforementioned Jimmy in Danny’s bed, no less. But I like the lack of polish! She’s capable is the point (and more capable than the incompetent local PD), and I also like that Ginny was approaching the case as more or less a civilian since her NYPD badge wouldn’t hold any water in the small town. Although I do find it interesting, now that I’m writing this, that Ginny was tasked with helping her friend solve her son’s homicide when she herself didn’t have experience in that; she was with the SVU, not homicide.
As the book’s mystery unfurled, we learned two key facts: a.) Danny was obsessed with learning about his mother, Paula, and what happened to her; and b.) Paula, the book doesn’t shy away from reminding us, was um, promiscuous with the older men, or any aged-man, around town. Once those two facts came to light, we can started seeing a motive for why someone might want to kill Danny: to prevent him from learning about the fate of his mother. Once that was the case, I had two suspects in mind: 1.) Coach Hank, the high school track coach, primarily because it wasn’t hard to imagine that Paula got her claws into one of the school’s “older men,” and because he tried to steer Ginny off his case by fingering Jimmy as a potential suspect; and 2.) Pete, Sonya’s husband and high school sweetheart. I was right on the first, and partially right on the second.
Coach Hank did kill Danny (and a drug dealer Danny was having sex with; unbeknownst to his family, he was gay or questioning) because he did have an affair with Paula and got her pregnant. Once he learned Danny was his kid, and then he found Danny having gay sex with the drug dealer, he lost his mind and killed him. Pete also had an affair with Paula, but he was infertile, so he couldn’t be Danny’s biological dad.
But there’s more! Because Bloom had a few tricks up her sleeve to try to throw us off of Coach Hank’s trail. It turned out, Paula didn’t run away from the town; she never left because she was murdered while pregnant with a second child. Paula kept “trophies” like a dang serial killer of all of her sexual conquests apparently, and one of those was a custom rosary. That led Ginny to confronting the local priest, who also had sex with Paula and confessed to killing her. Ginny realized, though, the priest confessed because he felt guilty, but wasn’t actually guilty. Instead, it was some high-falutin local banker, who also had sex with Paula, who killed her, then tried to kill Ginny when she was figuring out the case. When all this comes to a head, our up-to-that-point capable and smart protagonist let her guard down long enough for the priest to steal her gun and shoot and kill the banker. That part was a little too much for me. It was enough that the priest was wrapped up in the Paula scandal, but to be fair, Bloom’s clever way of explaining the priest doing the murderous deed was “an eye for an eye.”
The big city cop returning to her Podunk town to solve a murder isn’t a unique premise, but it’s a winning formula, nonetheless! And Bloom wrote it exceedingly well, where the small town wasn’t as pristine as nostalgic memories warranted, where there were fissures everywhere, where those who we once knew in childhood turned out completely different in adulthood, and where even in a small town, we don’t quite know everyone like we think we do. The gun-toting-priest moment aside, Ginny was also a great character because of her capabilities to cerebrally figure things out, which I appreciated those recap moments, to rise to the challenges that faced her (like having her brakes cut, nearly having her throat slashed, and dealing with a love-sick puppy of an old high school sweetheart), and her basic attempt to do the right thing, even up against opposition from some bumbling corners of that Podunk town.
If you also never tire of sipping from the “hot chocolate” well of a clever whodunit, I’d recommend this one!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 27, 2009
I picked this book to read because it's set in a small town in the Berkshires, and that is where I'm going on vacation next week. I really liked it and would also try her other book. It reminded me of Cornelia Read's books.
May 4, 2020
Sí, cinco estrellas, simple.
Este libro llevaba cerca de 10 años en mis estanterías, lo presté en dos ocasiones pero jamás me había animado a leerlo.
¡Vaya error! Es el libro perfecto para leerse de una sentada durante una tardecita lluviosa con un té en la mano. Es todo lo que una novela negra debe tener: asesinatos, sospechosos, pistas que se van hilando, un detective fuerte con algo de seso, culpables y un final feliz. Esta novela lo cumple todo y además ha metido romance (y un romance de lo más lindo). ¿Qué más puedo pedir? La escritura es muy amena y fluida, con capítulos cortísimos que finalizan con un cliffhanger que se resuelve en la siguiente página, no es una novela pretenciosa que te hace esperar otros 6 capítulos para saber qué ocurrió, por eso fluye bien y es tan adictiva.
No es una novela que te va a cambiar la vida, probablemente no recuerde los detalles pequeños en un futuro pero en serio, hace años que no disfrutaba tanto un thriller común y corriente. Sí, tiene algunos detalles que me hacen pensar que la autora era un poco amateur cuando escribió esta historia, como los que citaré más adelante en el área de spoilers o el hecho de que en ocasiones era muy predecible (por ejemplo, llaman a la puerta y ya sabes quién va a ser) pero incluso eso lo disfruté porque no siempre estamos de ánimo para una novela compleja, a veces cae bien algo tranquilito para una tarde de sábado y ya está.
A continuación cito los ejemplos que me parecieron un poquito absurdos (reiterando que aún así me pareció muy disfrutable) y con eso termino.
SPOILERS:
1. Ginny no sospecha que su "fallo" en los frenos no fue un accidente... ¿siendo policía?
2. Ginny piensa en automático que Lance es el verdadero asesino sin sospechar que alguien así solo puede ser el sicario del verdadero villano
3. Ginny no prevé que el asesino puede hacerle daño también a Jimmy. Y menos mal que no le ha pasado nada grave porque me muero, ha sido de lo más lindo de la historia (especialmente porque me lo imaginaba como Armie Hammer).
Este libro llevaba cerca de 10 años en mis estanterías, lo presté en dos ocasiones pero jamás me había animado a leerlo.
¡Vaya error! Es el libro perfecto para leerse de una sentada durante una tardecita lluviosa con un té en la mano. Es todo lo que una novela negra debe tener: asesinatos, sospechosos, pistas que se van hilando, un detective fuerte con algo de seso, culpables y un final feliz. Esta novela lo cumple todo y además ha metido romance (y un romance de lo más lindo). ¿Qué más puedo pedir? La escritura es muy amena y fluida, con capítulos cortísimos que finalizan con un cliffhanger que se resuelve en la siguiente página, no es una novela pretenciosa que te hace esperar otros 6 capítulos para saber qué ocurrió, por eso fluye bien y es tan adictiva.
No es una novela que te va a cambiar la vida, probablemente no recuerde los detalles pequeños en un futuro pero en serio, hace años que no disfrutaba tanto un thriller común y corriente. Sí, tiene algunos detalles que me hacen pensar que la autora era un poco amateur cuando escribió esta historia, como los que citaré más adelante en el área de spoilers o el hecho de que en ocasiones era muy predecible (por ejemplo, llaman a la puerta y ya sabes quién va a ser) pero incluso eso lo disfruté porque no siempre estamos de ánimo para una novela compleja, a veces cae bien algo tranquilito para una tarde de sábado y ya está.
A continuación cito los ejemplos que me parecieron un poquito absurdos (reiterando que aún así me pareció muy disfrutable) y con eso termino.
SPOILERS:
1. Ginny no sospecha que su "fallo" en los frenos no fue un accidente... ¿siendo policía?
2. Ginny piensa en automático que Lance es el verdadero asesino sin sospechar que alguien así solo puede ser el sicario del verdadero villano
3. Ginny no prevé que el asesino puede hacerle daño también a Jimmy. Y menos mal que no le ha pasado nada grave porque me muero, ha sido de lo más lindo de la historia (especialmente porque me lo imaginaba como Armie Hammer).
June 4, 2019
Just ok. The title is pretty misleading because I thought I was diving into a book where the fact the protagonist is the mortician’s daughter would be relevant, but the only thing it does is make for a cool title. It’s a minor little bone to pick, but the cover and the title give the impression that that’ll come into play and be relevant to the plot or the characters. Nope. Not at all.
The Mortician’s Daughter is a pretty formulaic crime fic novel. Tough lady cop returns to her tiny hometown to solve a mystery that personally affects her, reconnects with her high school love, saves the day, big plot twist the reader doesn’t see coming. It’s not terribly original, and it gets pretty convoluted. Also, the romance is boring, and Jimmy isn’t that likable.
Overall, this novel is disappointing for me. It’s a quick read, and if you like mediocre though entertaining crime fic, you might like this one.
The Mortician’s Daughter is a pretty formulaic crime fic novel. Tough lady cop returns to her tiny hometown to solve a mystery that personally affects her, reconnects with her high school love, saves the day, big plot twist the reader doesn’t see coming. It’s not terribly original, and it gets pretty convoluted. Also, the romance is boring, and Jimmy isn’t that likable.
Overall, this novel is disappointing for me. It’s a quick read, and if you like mediocre though entertaining crime fic, you might like this one.
December 16, 2020
The title alone compelled me to claim this book when it appeared in our Little Free Library; one of the funnest and funniest military spouses I've ever met is a mortician's daughter who once hosted a slumber party in the funeral home where her family lived for the first decade or so of her life.
Bloom's protagonist, Ginny Lavoie, likewise grew up in a funeral home but did not look back after earning a college scholarship and embarking on a career as a detective in the NYPD Special Victims Unit. Fifteen or so years later, suspended from her job, she returns to her hometown in Massachusetts when her best friend's 19-year-old son is brutally murdered. Bloom writes excellent dialogue and delivers a deliciously twisty plot.
Bloom's protagonist, Ginny Lavoie, likewise grew up in a funeral home but did not look back after earning a college scholarship and embarking on a career as a detective in the NYPD Special Victims Unit. Fifteen or so years later, suspended from her job, she returns to her hometown in Massachusetts when her best friend's 19-year-old son is brutally murdered. Bloom writes excellent dialogue and delivers a deliciously twisty plot.
September 18, 2019
Decent thriller with sparks of humor tucked away. I wouldn't say it's the most suspensful book I've ever read, but there's the odd twist in the story. I could have done without the "shocking" reveals at the end of a chapter: I'm going to turn the page anyway, it's not a TV show where you keep me guessing for a week or something. And some of the reveals (like the title) seemed to be purely for shock value.
I gave it a higher rating because I liked the settings and the protagonist. As a thriller alone, it's probably 3 stars.
I gave it a higher rating because I liked the settings and the protagonist. As a thriller alone, it's probably 3 stars.
January 17, 2025
Quick easy read . Purchased the book like others at local library. What struck me was how similar the town was to where I grew up .So many similarities. Then to find out the author resides just an hour from where I grew up made it more intriguing
May 19, 2017
An excellent mystery, well plotted and written.
If only EB could be persuaded to give us another story about Ginny, the mortician's daughter!
If only EB could be persuaded to give us another story about Ginny, the mortician's daughter!
July 23, 2018
Nothing special. I knew who did it about halfway thru.
May 11, 2021
Review: The Mortician’s Daughter by Elizabeth Bloom.
This book was a great story but I would have thought there was going to be a story about a mortician’s daughter growing up in a mortuary with her parents. Right off the story began with Ginny whose father was a mortician which ends there and is taken another path to Ginny being a NYC cop who is suspended and being investigated for abiding in a crime. This is where the story goes to her home town in Massachusetts to help her best friend, Sonya find out who brutally beat her nineteen-year-old son to death.
A confession was brought forth by a homeless Vet, so the town closed the case but Ginny for some reason thought he was belittled to confess and new he would not last locked up in a cell. Ginny’s intuition was right and within two days the homeless man hung himself in the cell. Ginny didn’t stop there; she went on investigating the case which made a few people in town wanted her gone. During the story there were three attempts on her Ginny’s life.
Its great writing, good characters, and the story is unpredictable. What kept me interested was that there was one event after another. I just think the cover and title of the book was misleading.
This book was a great story but I would have thought there was going to be a story about a mortician’s daughter growing up in a mortuary with her parents. Right off the story began with Ginny whose father was a mortician which ends there and is taken another path to Ginny being a NYC cop who is suspended and being investigated for abiding in a crime. This is where the story goes to her home town in Massachusetts to help her best friend, Sonya find out who brutally beat her nineteen-year-old son to death.
A confession was brought forth by a homeless Vet, so the town closed the case but Ginny for some reason thought he was belittled to confess and new he would not last locked up in a cell. Ginny’s intuition was right and within two days the homeless man hung himself in the cell. Ginny didn’t stop there; she went on investigating the case which made a few people in town wanted her gone. During the story there were three attempts on her Ginny’s life.
Its great writing, good characters, and the story is unpredictable. What kept me interested was that there was one event after another. I just think the cover and title of the book was misleading.
June 9, 2021
An exciting thriller as action occurs on each page. Writing ability is not bad, containing a fair amount of wit; an interesting twist.
August 22, 2021
Really good mystery... I thought I had it figured out so many times only to be surprised by another twist. I couldn't stop reading towards the end, I was so transfixed!
March 24, 2022
Good Read
Fast paced story with a twist at the end that I did not see coming. We'll look for other books by this author.
Fast paced story with a twist at the end that I did not see coming. We'll look for other books by this author.
September 28, 2022
Parts of it made me uncomfortable but not the way I was expecting them too
June 22, 2024
I loved this book. Ginny a NY police officer came back to her hometown to see if she can help her solve the murder of her son. The bodies just kept showing up.
August 30, 2024
This story takes place in my hometown. Interesting to read and know the places mentioned.
June 12, 2020
Me ha enganchado totalmente. Me encantó.
July 23, 2018
Interesting read! Nothing life changing, but a good bargain book to pass the time. I read this book right before reading Sharp Objects, and they are remarkably similar in some ways - so much so that I kept confusing the plots!
Sort of an odd choice of title, seeing as it really doesn’t have anything to do with the actual story, but it is “click-baity” enough that I picked it up!
Sort of an odd choice of title, seeing as it really doesn’t have anything to do with the actual story, but it is “click-baity” enough that I picked it up!
November 8, 2007
THE MORTICIAN’S DAUGTHER (Unlicensed Investigator-Ginny Lavoire-Massachusetts-Cont) – G+
Bloom, Elizabeth (aka Beth Saulnier)
Grand Central Publishing, 2006, US Paperback – ISBN: 9780446619103
First Sentence: She was staring out the window when the phone rang.
*** Ginny Lavoie has been suspended from the NYPD and is free to head to her home town in Massachusetts. The teenage son of her childhood best friend has been murdered and wants Ginny to find the killer. The local police arrest someone, but Ginny is certain he is innocent. Her brakes fail and she thinks its mechanical failure until it becomes very clear someone does not want her investigating Danny’s murder. The bright spot is Ginny renewing her relationship with her high-school boyfriend.
*** This was a definite page-turner. I liked that we learn about Ginny through the progression of the story. I enjoyed that she is the tough, capable don’t-mess-with-me character while her boyfriend is a baker. Being back in her small home town is an interesting story in contracts but also gives the character and opportunity to grow. Being set in a small town, you have a somewhat stereotypical cross-section of small-town character but that doesn’t make them any less interesting. The plot was delightfully twisty with some good suspense. It’s a fast read, perfect for a trip or a rainy day.
Bloom, Elizabeth (aka Beth Saulnier)
Grand Central Publishing, 2006, US Paperback – ISBN: 9780446619103
First Sentence: She was staring out the window when the phone rang.
*** Ginny Lavoie has been suspended from the NYPD and is free to head to her home town in Massachusetts. The teenage son of her childhood best friend has been murdered and wants Ginny to find the killer. The local police arrest someone, but Ginny is certain he is innocent. Her brakes fail and she thinks its mechanical failure until it becomes very clear someone does not want her investigating Danny’s murder. The bright spot is Ginny renewing her relationship with her high-school boyfriend.
*** This was a definite page-turner. I liked that we learn about Ginny through the progression of the story. I enjoyed that she is the tough, capable don’t-mess-with-me character while her boyfriend is a baker. Being back in her small home town is an interesting story in contracts but also gives the character and opportunity to grow. Being set in a small town, you have a somewhat stereotypical cross-section of small-town character but that doesn’t make them any less interesting. The plot was delightfully twisty with some good suspense. It’s a fast read, perfect for a trip or a rainy day.
February 6, 2011
Ginny's career as a NYC cop is in jeopardy but she knows she has to answer her phone and return to her hometown when her best friend's son has been murdered. Soon Ginny is unofficially investigating people from her childhood discovering numerous secrets. Danny was a troubled teen searching for his real parents, whom he never found before he was brutally beaten to death. Ginny soon becomes the target of the killer as she struggles to stay alive while finding out the truth behind Danny's death. The truth of course reaches far back into the past, back to when Danny was born--father unknown, mother's whereabouts unknown now...The plot was very well thought out, I just wished the book overall had more depth. And a cop searching for a killer, what does the title mean--it really has nothing to do with the book.
I have had this on my to-read list for a long long time. And, recently I was thrilled to find this book as the used bookstore.
I have had this on my to-read list for a long long time. And, recently I was thrilled to find this book as the used bookstore.
January 24, 2015
Love the cover and the title of this easy to get into book. It boasts of its success by the length of time it took me to read. Our heroine, Ginny who by the way happens to be the mortician's daughter is at odds with her father. They haven't spoken in years. He's not even the mortician in the town she grew up in anymore. Ginny hasn't been back there in years and wouldn't be there now if it hadn't been for the late night call saying only, "Danny's dead."
This is a murder mystery that takes us around and about a very convincing town. The plot twists and turns and thickens as any good mystery should. The characters are so believable, likeable or despicable. The reunion of Ginny and Jimmy adds the spice to make it human. If any thing at all was bothersome about the book it was only at first when I felt a struggle of narration. Was it being told in first person or third. I soon forgot as I got immersed in the story.
This is a murder mystery that takes us around and about a very convincing town. The plot twists and turns and thickens as any good mystery should. The characters are so believable, likeable or despicable. The reunion of Ginny and Jimmy adds the spice to make it human. If any thing at all was bothersome about the book it was only at first when I felt a struggle of narration. Was it being told in first person or third. I soon forgot as I got immersed in the story.
May 25, 2015
Hace tiempo no leía un libro de este genero... Y si me gusto sin embargo no me mantuvo con los nervios de punta como me sucede con este genero (tal vez porque pasaron muchas cosas mientras leía el libro y lo mas chistoso es que empece la historia con un libro y lo termine con uno que le robe a una amiga por dos dias... :P) Lo confieso soy mala descubriendo al villano, sospeche de todos ... TODOS... y el que en verdad fue, lo descarte muy rápido... ademas las razones por la que sucedió todo no me la hubiera imaginado ni en mis peores sueños.... En fin el libro tiene buenos giros, te mantiene sospechando de todos sin embargo a mi no me mato de los nervios... pero los recomiendo a las personas que le quieran dar una oportunidad a este genero..
July 2, 2010
i LOVED THIS BOOK!!! i want MORE MORE MORE> infact soo much so i have even considered writing to this author and asking what was going on!!
some say their characters are the next steph plum and in my opinion fall short.. well this chick is close... she has spunk, she's funny and well... i want a GIANT cinnamon loaf of bread too!!
GRAB THIS AND READ It!!
and to THINK i got it for 3$ at big lots!! better than the marie callenders cornbread mix i got at the same time!(and THAT was mighty fine!)
GREAT BOOK!!
some say their characters are the next steph plum and in my opinion fall short.. well this chick is close... she has spunk, she's funny and well... i want a GIANT cinnamon loaf of bread too!!
GRAB THIS AND READ It!!
and to THINK i got it for 3$ at big lots!! better than the marie callenders cornbread mix i got at the same time!(and THAT was mighty fine!)
GREAT BOOK!!
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