3.5 stars. ( )

I was intrigued by this book. It drew me in and kept me reading, despite the horrific abuse. But the ending! Such a disappointment, and very confusing. I had to read it twice to figure out what happened, or at least what I think happened. And I just don't buy it. She shoehorned a paranormal experience into a mundane book at the very end and it wasn't convincing. I have spent some time around ardent Baptists and they don't hold with talking with ghosts, and they don't pretend that the ghost is a real person, and they certainly don't report the murdered person's memories anonymously to the police. Give me a break. You had a good story going up until the end, why take off into the weird if it isn't useful to the story? Also, the killer was really, really obvious. It worked ok with the story for it to be that way, but really, really obvious. ( )

** spoiler alert ** I want to start off saying I thought the plot was a knockout detective thriller. An undertaker is visited by a girl that is involved in a pedophilia ring and the detectives step in to help. I picked it up and was eager to read, however, the book fell flat in the pacing. It started off very slow and then was rushed to the ending. I didn't really care too much for Clara until the middle of the book after her past is revealed fully. After that, I understood more as to why she was reserved, but I felt like it was too much. Every time something happened she said she wanted to do the thing, but can't. This happens even when she is fighting for her life against Ryan. I really wanted to slap her and say JUST KILL HIM YOU HAVE BODY CUTTING TOOLS! Eventually, she did in a touching memory to all the people Ryan killed. We then flash to a dream sequence with everyone she loves and they make her decide between living or dying. Linus tells her she can die but she hasn't even lived yet. SPOILER** she chooses to live and it ends on an iconic line " and I chose to breathe." I was left wanting more but also thought the story ended beautifully. Maybe if there was a little companion book about what happened to her and Mike after I would be fully satisfied. overall if the pacing was different this would have been a perfect thriller story. ( )

This was a really good book. It was thought provoking and touching. ( )

Excellent story with a fragile, damaged main character named Clara that works as an undertaker and keeps very much to herself. She fights a growing physical attraction to police detective Mike Sullivan as they investigate a cold case of a murdered girl who may be linked with a little girl Clara encounters playing in the funeral home. Along the way the reader is offered glimpses of Clara's past that shaped her into the closed-off woman she has become. I really enjoyed this story and felt moved by Clara's pain and sense of isolation. ( )