Many thanks to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for my spot on this Blog Tour.

Wowza the ladies were back again and how!! A complexed story with multiple plot lines with the ladies of the Skelf family at the helm. Author Doug Johnstone’s dark humor and almost a laidback way of storytelling brought to light the nuances of the three generations of women.

The characters made the book compelling, every woman was etched in detail, full of depth. Each came across as real, someone with both strengths and flaws. It was to the author’s credit to make them stand out uniquely.

Tension was seen across the scenes, keeping me deliciously motivated to read the book at one go. The family drama seemed real; these were slightly different than the norm. The ladies not only ran a funeral home but also a private investigative firm. So Death was their base, so to say.

Told in different POVs, this was slightly slower paced than book 1. There were many subplots running parallel to keep me intrigued. It was the sheer talent of the author to make them flow seamlessly. I was awed.

The book could be read as a standalone, though it would be preferable to read the earlier one, just to love these ladies a bit more. Overall, the Skelf ladies made the book compelling.

I received a ARC from Anne and publisher, Orenda Books, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!! STRICTLY HONEST AND UNBIASED.

All my reviews can be read here

Running private investigator and funeral home businesses means trouble is never far away, and the Skelf women take on their most perplexing, chilling cases yet in book two of this darkly funny, devastatingly tense and addictive new series!

Haunted by their past, the Skelf women are hoping for a quieter life. But running both a funeral directors’ and a private investigation business means trouble is never far away, and when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral that matriarch Dorothy is conducting, she can’t help looking into the dead driver’s shadowy life.

While Dorothy uncovers a dark truth at the heart of Edinburgh society, her daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah have their own struggles. Jenny’s ex-husband Craig is making plans that could shatter the Skelf women’s lives, and the increasingly obsessive Hannah has formed a friendship with an elderly professor that is fast turning deadly.

But something even more sinister emerges when a drumming student of Dorothy’s disappears and suspicion falls on her parents. The Skelf women find themselves sucked into an unbearable darkness – but could the real threat be to themselves?

Publication Date: July 2020