An unusual and engaging mixture of comic novel, thriller, social commentary and a story of hope
This book was surprisingly original and engaging. It's an unusual and genre-defying mixture of comic novel, thriller, social commentary and a story of hope - without too much saccharine. It's a fairly short novel and I read it in a single afternoon and evening.
It seemed to be a black comic caper at first. Martin, a mild-mannered and conscientious funeral director in an average small English town, was horrified to find that the body of a former Mayor had disappeared from his funeral parlour on the eve of the funeral. A spiral of increasingly bizarre, but strangely believable, events followed. These included references to bereavement, funeral procedures, exhumation, murder, people smuggling, sexual abuse and other sensitive subjects. These were not treated lightly and dealt with sympathetically but there was a lot of humour and humanity in the book despite the dark subjects. References to Greek stoicism and philosophy were a surprise.
Characterisation and descriptions were strong and the writing flowed well. I was grateful to LoveReading for a review copy of a book that I would not have known about otherwise.
A tale of loss (literally), funny, body goes missing and a bit of a farce. A recommended read
I was asked to review this humorous book, not as I first thought that this was just anecdotes of being a funeral director but that this was a bit of a thriller/detective story also. You would think this would be a bit of a mundane read- how wrong I was.
A body goes missing and events go from bad to worse, I know this should be quite sombre but the dark humour emerges, and there is empathy too. When something happens you dig deep and I think this shows someone's character and how we help each other.
A good quick read and recommended
Very different but strangely moving at times.
This book was certainly different and I don't really know what to say about it. I found it hard going at first and I must have been half way through before I suddenly began to enjoy it. There were little flashes of humour which I enjoyed but the descriptions of what happens to a dead body I didn't enjoy. It was well written though.