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    Flowers for Her Grave
    Flowers for Her Grave
    Flowers for Her Grave
    Ebook360 pages5 hours

    Flowers for Her Grave

    By Judy Clemens

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    "Readers will find themselves throughly entertained by this oddly appealing mix of the jaunty and the macabre."—Booklist

    Casey and Death are on the run…again. After obtaining new identification and throwing herself off the grid, she travels to Florida to begin a new life as Daisy Gray, fitness instructor for a wealthy, enclosed community. But even while keeping her head down, it doesn't take long for Casey to find herself in the middle of trouble. One of the residents is attacked, and Casey is the one to find her, bleeding on the tile floor of the locker room. Despite heroic attempts, the woman dies, and the community is thrown into turmoil. The cops are at a loss, unable to find anyone who might want the woman dead.

    Despite Death's urgings to go on the run again, Casey takes a careful look at the victim's life and asks who could have wanted her dead. The free-wheeling residents? The staff? And what, if anything, might Casey's predecessors in her new job have to do with it? Time to dig in and ask, even with Death on her back.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJun 30, 2011
    ISBN9781615952670
    Flowers for Her Grave
    Author

    Judy Clemens

    Judy Clemens spends her days in rural Ohio, where she writes, spends time with her family, and eats too much chocolate. She is the author of the Grim Reaper and Stella Crown mysteries, and is a past president of Sisters in Crime.

    Read more from Judy Clemens

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    Reviews for Flowers for Her Grave

    3.5/5

    14 ratings2 reviews

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    • 2/5
      When the Grim Reaper is your only constant companion, life can be strange. That’s how it is for Casey Maldonado, heroine of Judy Clemens’ Grim Reaper series. Death and Casey have been constant companions since Casey’s husband and son were killed in a car accident that Casey managed to survive.Flowers for Her Grave is the third book in the series. It finds Casey and Death in Florida, on the the run from police and the manufacturer of the car that killed Casey’s family. Explanations about how Death became Casey’s companion are absent, and readers new to the series may want to jump back to an earlier book for the background.The background may not be all that necessary. All a reader needs to know is that Death hangs around Casey, serving as a combination of a Greek Chorus, Jewish mother and Cat-in-the-hat-esque observer. Death’s real purpose is to give Casey someone to talk to in order to provide exposition for the reader.The plot centers around a mysterious death at an adult community where Casey, under an alias, finds work as a personal trainer. Casey plays Nancy Drew to solve the crime, all the while hoping the local police don’t discover her true identity and trying not to act on her growing attraction to one of the detectives. Readers can easily keep up with the twists and turns of the murder investigation, spotting red herrings as they appear and vanish.Clemens tries to make the novel a mix of humor, pulp crime and the paranormal, with a dash of romance and female empowerment thrown in for good measure. As would be expected in the growing genre of supernatural chick lit, Casey doesn’t need a man to help her get things done. She’s a martial arts expert who’s inevitably smarter than those around her, except when the plot calls for her to forget something or overlook an obvious clue in order for the story to advance. The mishmash of genres works against developing affection for Casey. Her backstory is tragic, but the lighthearted tone of the books clashes with the few times Casey is reminded of her losses.Death’s main character feature is sarcasm, and the other characters are virtually indistinguishable from each other apart from gender, occupation and name.The end result is a harmless, lightweight novel, the sort you might buy in an airport, only to leave behind unfinished on the plane. Flowers for Her Grave has some entertainment value, but it doesn’t grab a reader’s attention and make you anxious to read the previous books or look forward to the next.
    • 4/5
      I read, I smiled, I laughed, and I truly enjoyed this book. Although this is part of the Grim Reaper series by Judy Clemens, it is the first book in this series that I've read. It is also the first book from a series that I've read that didn't leave me feeling as if I had to read the previous books in order to understand what was happening (although I do feel that I will be reading them just becuse I enjoyed this one so much). It took a little bit of getting used to someone, namely Casey Maldonado, having "death" or a grim reaper as a companion, but L'Ankou is part of what makes this mystery so light-hearted and fun.Casey is still dealing with the grief of losing her son and husband in a car accident, not to mention severe albeit superficial injuries from a recent fight. She is trained in hapkido, a form of martial arts, as well as being an athletic trainer. We meet her and L'Ankou as they are travelling on a boxcar running away from Kansas. It appears that she previously was running away from Ohio, the scene of her husband and son's death, and from being a murder suspect. Her travels take her to Raceda, Florida where she starts work at an apartment/condo complex as a fitness instructor/athletic trainer. Needless to say that trouble is not far behind. Casey, now known as Daisy, discovers a badly injured woman who subsequently dies. Of course she must investigate and quickly jumps to all the wrong conclusions. What is interesting is the often comedic and quirky changes that L'Ankou makes. When he is around a police officer, he dresses as one with a name tag to fit. He also dresses in a kimono upon learning that Casey/Daisy has been invited to a Japanese restaurant. Most people don't see Casey's companion but a few, those that don't fear death, are capable of seeing him. This makes for interesting exchanges as Casey apparently must speak aloud to respond to L'Ankou and others can't see him and presume she is speaking to them or that she's just crazy.I think quirky is the correct word to use in describing this book. Ms. Clemens has created characters that are realistic and all-too humans with their faults. L'Ankou, although not human, seems to have just as much to offer as his human companion and it this relationship that makes this book work. Casey needs L'Ankou as much as he seems to need her. She needs the connection to her deceased husband and son and L'Ankou needs to live vicariously through someone that can see him, interact with him and accept him for what he is...death. Look for this title to be released in early August.An advanced reader copy of this book was made available through netGalley and Poisoned Pen Press, Inc. I thank them both for this opportunity.

    Book preview

    Flowers for Her Grave - Judy Clemens

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