Cremains of the Day (A Tallie Graver Mystery #1) by Misty Simon

Cremains of the Day by Misty Simon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tallulah Graver never wanted to go into the family business of running the Graver Funeral Home. Instead Tallie choose to marry a wealthy man and was living rather well until her marriage fell apart. Picking herself up after the divorce Tallie found in order to avoid the family business and still pay her bills she took a job cleaning the homes of the same wealthy people that she once called friends.

Things were going well and Tallie was adjusting to being downgraded to the hired help until the day she walks into a friends shop and finds a woman tied up and her ex laying unconscious. Then to make matters worse for Tallie as she returns to her job of cleaning she finds a body in the closet of the home she’s working. Tallie finds herself right in the middle of everything and needs to find out just how all these events connect before the danger finds her next.

Cremains of the Day by Misty Simon is the first book in the new cozy Tallie Graver Mystery series. With the creepy hearse on the cover this one seemed to be one that would be perfect for a Halloween read. But that would lead to my only real complaint with this new series, the cover is a bit misleading as the family funeral home barely plays any part in the story as Tallie is spending the majority of the book cleaning instead. I just felt it could have been played up a bit more to give this series a nice unique spin.

As for the rest of this story it was a solid beginning to a new cozy series. There were plenty of suspicious activities and shadiness to keep a reader guessing. Tallie was also a strong lead to follow with her hard working ethic and determination to continue onward despite her circumstances. I will certainly be interested in seeing what is in store for the series next and whether the author syncs up the use of the funeral home in more than just a nice cover to draw readers into the series.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.