When the family business is death, what does it take to feel alive?

Maybe a gorgeous motorcycle mechanic with a dark past has a few ideas?

Mortician Keir Dearly has a secret he plans to take to his grave. If he tells anyone he speaks with the dead who come through his funeral home, who will believe him? Keeping the secret prevents Keir from pursuing a love life because how would a lover react to such news?

Mechanic Dashiell Clegg owns Clegg Cycles, the family business his father left to him and his estranged brother Daniel. Dash has only seen Daniel twice since Dash was released from prison, and that’s perfectly fine with both of them. The brothers stay out of each other’s lives until one day, Dash gets a call that changes everything.

When Dash’s brother, deviant Daniel Clegg, shows up on Keir’s table with a final request: Keep my brother from being blamed for my murder, the temptation to jump into the mix is too much for Keir to resist. Can Keir save Dashiell Clegg without telling anyone about his conversations with the dead?

After being warned about communing with the Departed, will Dearly have to pay a price for assisting them in finding their final peace?

How was it?

It’s been a while since I’ve struggled with a book and this is one of them. I had to hang on because I’m optimistic and was waiting for greatness or entertainment. It’s just OK.

I didn’t even read the blurb, I chose this book based on the title and the name of the series, and it turns out this story is about someone – Keir Dearly – seeing and talking to dead people. So I was curious to see how it would go.

A story about a mortician, a ghost’s final request with a mystery thrown in? This has the making of a great story. But the pacing is slow throughout, there are many tangents that try to add texture or context to the story but most of them fall flat. The characters are either childish or/and horror movie-level stupid. You know the kind of poor decision-making that makes the horror movie happen. Not that this story is horror is just some characters acting less than smart.

The more I think about the more I feel like the might have been a stretched novella since there’s a whole lot of rambling.

As the first book in a new series, this does not bode well. It’s barely good enough for me to slug my way through the end. At least it’s not a DNF.

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