Akron Public Library

With his father, a fugitive, falsely accused of multiple murders and the real serial killer stalking the wretched streets of Urbs Umida, Pin Carpue, a young undertaker's assistant, investigates and soon discovers that all of the victims mayhave attended the performance of a stage magician who claims to be able to raise corpses and make the dead speak.

A shoreside burial coordinator who lives in self-enforced exile as penance for a long-ago mistake and a performer with a floating circus face unexpected life changes and new opportunities in the wake of an offshore storm.

"J.J. Graves has seen a lot of dead bodies in her line of work. She's not only in the mortuary business, but she's also the coroner for King George County, Virginia. When a grisly murder is discovered in the small town of Bloody Mary, it's up to J.J. and her best friend, Detective Jack Lawson, to bring the victim justice. The murders are piling up. When a popular mystery writer shows up on J.J.'s doorstep with plans of writing his new book about the...

"Nothing stays buried forever...Doctor Rowan Dupont knows death. She grew up surrounded by it in her family's Victorian funeral home, and it's haunted her since the day her twin sister drowned years ago. Between her mother's subsequent suicide and the recent murder of her father, coming home to run the funeral home feels fitting--even if it leaves her vulnerable to an obsessive serial killer. Rowan refuses to let fear keep her from honoring her family....

When the tarot readings of Queen Victoria's palace servant come true, undertaker Violet Harper must discover if the mysterious deaths of the Queen's daughter's friends are coincidence or part of a larger nefarious plan.

"A propulsive contemporary women's fiction debut with dark humor and messy yet warm-hearted family dynamics, perfect for fans of Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had and Emma Straub's All Adults Here. All families are messy. Some are disasters. Natalie Walker is the reason her older brother and sister went to prison over 15 years ago. She fled California shortly after that fateful night and hasn't spoken to anyone in her family since. Ten years...

"King George County, Virginia has its share of crime, but it's generally a good place to live and raise a family. So when a string of unusual murders sweeps through the county, J.J. Graves and her husband, Sheriff Jack Lawson, are left scratching their heads. But the victims have one thing in common--Malachi Graves--J.J.'s father. The world thinks he's dead, but J.J. knows that's just another one of his lies, and it's only a matter of time before...

In 1861 London, Violet Morgan is struggling to establish a good reputation for the undertaking business that her husband has largely abandoned. She provides comfort for the grieving, advises them on funeral fashion and etiquette, and arranges funerals. Unbeknownst to his wife, Graham, who has nursed a hatred of America since his grandfather soldiered for Great Britain in the War of 1812, becomes involved in a scheme to sell arms to the South. Meanwhile,...

Mary Crampton has spent all of her thirty years in Petroleum, a small Western town once supported by a powerful grain company. Living at home, she works as the embalmer in her fathers mortuary: an unlikely job that has long marked her as an outsider. Yet, to Mary there is a satisfying art to positioning and styling each body to capture the essence of a subjects life. Though some townsfolk pretend that the community is thriving, the truth is that Petroleum...

Riley Smith, whose new classmates think she is a freak because of her father's profession, must deal with ghosts who believe she can help them move on, including a young woman whose death was not accidental and an appealing boy her age.