A Grave Issue (A Funeral Parlor Mystery #1) by Lillian Bell

After an on-air gaffe goes viral and jeopardizes her career, journalist Desiree Turner retreats home to Verbena, California for some peace and quiet. She begins working one of the quietest jobs around: presiding over funerals for her great-grandfather’s funeral parlor. But the action seems to follow her as a fistfight breaks out between neighbors Rosemarie Brewer and Lola Hansen at one of the first funerals she’s in charge of running. It exposes a nasty dispute and Rosemarie’s husband, Alan, is found murdered shortly after.

Lola’s husband, Kyle, is immediately arrested. Desiree, whose own father’s death was devastating, has always viewed Kyle as a second father. Determined to clear his name, Desiree jumps head first into the investigation and quickly discovers that Alan had several unsavory habits at his job and in his personal life, including putting assets into his mistress’s account to hide them from Rosemarie. People murder for money and love all the time, and there’s no telling who he offended just enough to push them over the edge.

Desiree is looking in all the right places, but she better catch the killer fast before they come for her next in A Grave Issue, the clever series debut by Lillian Bell.   (Summary via Goodreads)


Five words..... the last five words in A Grave Issue by Lillian Bell will have you wanting more !!!  But that's getting ahead of myself.....

A Grave Issue is the debut novel in the Funeral Parlor Mystery series by Lillian Bell and it is out of this world !!  You may think that a book centered around a funeral parlor will be dark and depressing but that is not the case with this book.  A Grave Issue is centered around Desiree Turner and her family funeral parlor.  She moved back home after a career ending mishap and her father doesn't return from a surfing outing.  Desiree takes over as assistant funeral director along side her pregnant sister, Donna, who does all the paperwork and her Uncle Joey who makes the deceased look beautiful.  

The story begins with a dead bird, barking dogs and two long-time neighbors feuding.....with one of them being shot to death by the others gun !!  Kyle and Lola are close friends of the family, especially Kyle who was like a second father to Desiree and Donna.  Desiree is determined to prove his innocence even if no one else believes it.

This determination leads Desiree all around town uncovering things that you would never believe in a small town where you know everyone.....or at least she did before she left town.

A Grave Issue is full of so much you will want to read it slowly to savor every twist and turn but it will be hard to control your mind and eyes.  At least we know that there will be another Funeral Parlor Mystery book in the near future......there has to be - the last sentence says so !!!  And I for one am holding on to that fact !!!

Review by Missi S.