Downsized from her job as a medical examiner in Chicago, Romaine Wilder returns to Roble, TX to live with her Aunt Suzanne who raised her. Auntie Zanne is a bit of an eccentric, practicing Voodoo herbalism to help those around her. The family business is the Ball Funeral Home and Crematorium. Her auntie spent 2 weeks in Chicago helping Romie get ready to move. They arrive in Texas to a surprise, but not the kind people enjoy receiving. The funeral home has a guest -- an extra dead body. Not only do they have no idea about the identity of the deceased middle aged man reclining in one of their caskets...but it appears that he has been murdered. Romie soon finds herself involved in a murder investigation along with her aunt and her cousin, Pogue, the local sheriff.

I enjoyed this book. It's a nice start to a new cozy series! The characters are eccentric, lively and have that spunky southern country attitude. It made the story fun to read! Aunt Zanne is my favorite character. She really rushes in and takes everything over when she gets a notion into her head. It does make her butt heads frequently with her niece....but only because the two women are a lot alike -- intelligent and independent. I did find Romie to be a bit less determined than her auntie. At times she didn't seem to react to things the way a doctor would, but if I had just lost my job in Chicago and moved to east-nowhere small town Texas, I would probably react to things a little slowly myself. The one thing that bothered me is that the premise of her moving to Texas was that she couldn't find another job in Chicago. I don't believe it would be difficult for a doctor, especially a medical examiner, to find a job in a large metro area. She wasn't dismissed for malpractice or a problem on the job....but downsized. I don't believe she would have been forced to move to Texas. And surely a doctor would have some savings or credit to fall back on in an emergency. That part of the plot just didn't make sense to me. But......it's a cozy and not meant to be a realistic hard-hitting crime novel. Romie came back home to help bake crawfish pie and solve a murder. :)

The mystery moved along at a nice pace with plenty of twists and sleuthing. The story definitely kept my attention from beginning to end.

This is the first cozy I have read where all the main characters are black. It was refreshing and enjoyable to read! The characters were wonderful, well developed, and entertaining.

All in all, a great beginning to a new cozy series! I can't wait to read more!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Henery Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** ( )

This was a pretty good mystery, but a couple of the characters drove me crazy. The Auntie Zanne character was a bit much. And the main character Romaine Wilder just seemed to be pulled from here to there with no thoughts of her own. Just my opinion, I'm sure some will love Auntie Zanne and Ms Wilder. I'm not sure I will pursue the others in this series. ( )

Romaine Wilder has lost her job in a Chicago hospital and forced to return home to Roble, Texas, to live with her Aunt Zanne (Babet) at the family funeral home. She isn't happy but is convinced it's only temporary so is going to make it work.

The moment they return home they see a family friend, Josephine Gail, out on the lawn in the rain babbling about a dead body. Well, it is a funeral home, of course - but the dead body doesn't belong there. No one seems to know who it is or how he got there. When Romaine does a quick check, she can't find any reason why he should be dead in the first place, but will know more after an autopsy. When it's discovered how he was murdered and who he was, then her cousin Sheriff Pogue Folsum has his work cut out for him trying to find out who murdered the man.

Standing in his way is Zanne, who is trying to make his job harder and Romie's life miserable while she decides she's going to find a killer who had the nerve to leave an unwanted body in her funeral home...

First off, I wanted to like this book as I thought it had a good premise. But there were so many questions I had to ask: I don't understand how she's a medical examiner but couldn't find a job anywhere in Chicago? That didn't make sense to me. A good doctor can always find a job, and in Chicago, where there are so many deaths, (just read the news) we're supposed to believe that not even one medical facility would need a good examiner?

Also, she doesn't have any money that was mentioned so she couldn't find her own place to live, and doesn't own a vehicle. Even if you take the El, you'd still need a car to get some places - yet she took the train back home instead of driving. Why didn't she have a vehicle? Why hadn't she saved enough money to stay in Chicago until she found a job? Surely a doctor would be making a decent wage, government job or not.

Then, Pogue must know that Josephine Gail suffers from depression, so the first thing he does after Zanne leaves the room is accuse her of murdering the man and demanding she tell him how she did it. And our spineless friend Romie just sits there and allows him to attack her like that. He didn't ask to see the list of bodies delivered, nor did he even think to ask who brought the bodies but instead asked a woman in her seventies how she committed murder. Seriously? He's known this woman his whole life, and he believes her to be capable of murder? This is a serious plot hole.

But the worst character is Zanne, and the reason I didn't give the book a higher rating. I believe she's supposed to be feisty, but she just comes off as pompous and mean-spirited. (When she said Romaine looked just like her, I cringed. While it was supposed to be funny, who wants to be compared to an eighty-two-year-old woman and said they resembled her, especially if they're half her age). Plus, she's an aunt, not a mother, so they might not resemble each other at all. And sorry to say, Zanne, you won't have grandkids - she's your niece, even if you raised her; not your daughter.

Perhaps these things wouldn't bother me so much if she weren't so insane, and not in a good way. She's certifiable. She keeps telling Romaine she's staying in Roble knowing she's unhappy to be there; telling her she's going to run the funeral home knowing she doesn't want to; telling her she'll find her a husband and have kids - well, you get the idea. This is not funny nor quirky. I doubt any reader would want to be treated this way by any relative. A good aunt who's raised you will support you in thick and thin, allow you to live your own life, be there when you need to talk, and not try and run your life - just like a good mother. Zanne is none of these things, and therefore unlikable.

All I could think about was Romaine needed to get out of there fast, especially after Zanne told her how making crawfish pies were more important than an autopsy (basically 'what I want is more important than what you want); and demanded she be allowed to sit in on said autopsy. Um, no. So what if she has to ready the body for burial? What does that have to do with an autopsy; and in her business, she should already be aware she can't sit in on them. I doubt if there's a pathologist in the country who allows funeral directors to watch them work. Unfortunately, all this did was give the impression that Zanne was a pushy woman who demanded the world revolve around her and what she wanted. (Since when does a crawfish festival take precedence over a murder victim?

Also unfortunately, Romaine is everything I dislike in a woman - a spineless person who bends to the will of others instead of standing up for herself. That she was waiting for her friends to find her a job instead of trying to find another one herself tells you all you need to know. Even the crawfish had more backbone than she did. I'm not saying she shouldn't be respectful of Zanne; but being respectful and allowing someone to push you around and tell you what you are going to do with your life are two different things.

I really struggled with this review because while I understand this is the first in the series and probably needs work, at least two things need to change before I will continue with it: Romaine needs to develop a backbone and not allow herself to be pushed around by her crazy aunt (she did develop a small one but not enough); and Zanne needs to grow up, realize that Romaine isn't a little girl anymore, and stop trying to run everyone's life and let Romaine do whatever she wants regardless of what Zanne wants her to do; in other words, stop trying to run (and ruin) her life. ( )