Book Review - Don of the Dead

A fun, first novel by Casey Daniels

Dec 2, 2006 Sandy Mitchell

Playful, crisp, and enjoyable, this first novel, featuring Pepper Martin -- a cemetery guide who sees "dead people" is a fun cozy mystery.

Pepper Martin is a tour guide at an historic Cleveland, Ohio cemetery, a job she's been forced to take when her upper middle class surgeon father is sent to prison for embezzlement and her society-conscious fiance dumps her. After a bump on the head, Pepper meets Gus Scarpetti, the former head of a local crime family who died over 25 years ago.

Solving the Murder of Gus Scarpetti

Scarpetti, the ghost, pesters Pepper until she finally decides to help him solve his murder in front of a Little Italy eatery all those years before. The quest brings her two new beaus, danger, and more information than she ever wanted to know about the Scarpettis.

The Cleveland Connection

Don of the Dead is a fun cozy with a likeable heroine and a satisfying plot. Cleveland readers will find the lightly veiled local references fun and easy to identify. But, the novel is enjoyable for those not familiar with the North Coast as well.

About Casey Daniels

Casey Daniels is a Cleveland Ohio writer, with a self-confessed passion for cemeteries. A lifelong Clevelander, daughter of a police officer, and former journalist, she brings a unique mix of experience to her writing. She counts Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle among her favorite mystery authors. Her second novel, The Chick and the Dead, is due out in March.

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The copyright of the article Book Review - Don of the Dead in Mystery/Crime Fiction is owned by Sandy Mitchell. Permission to republish Book Review - Don of the Dead in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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