No Body: Review

No Body by Nancy Pickard is a fun and funny mystery that I picked up as part of my Follow That Blurb Challenge journey. This is the third story in Pickard's Jenny Cain series, but I had no problem stepping into the book without having read the first two. The story begins with Jenny's old sixth-grade teacher visiting the graves of her forbears only to be caught in a mud slide that reveals that her ancestors, along with 131 other "residents" of the New England cemetery are no longer resting in peace. In fact, they're not resting there at all. Following directly on the heels of this alarming discovery, the corpse of Sylvia Davis, secretary to the local funeral home, is found in the casket with John Rudolph just as his wife is preparing to see him safely stowed in the new cemetery. Rudolph's widow makes several scenes and then makes an appointment with the report Lewis Riss to tell what she knows. Before she can keep that appointment, she, too, is found murdered. It's up to Jenny to solve the two mysteries--the one with too few bodies and the one where the corpses keep multiplying.

Jenny Cain is a bright, witty character. She has a way of getting people to talk and finding out what they don't want her to know. She also makes her share of mistakes before getting to the final answer and this makes her very human. The writing is brisk and easy going down--making for a fun, quick read. There is enough humor to offset the rather depressing subject matter of funerals and funeral homes and graveyards. The mystery has enough twists in it to keep the reader guessing till the end. Three stars for a nice, pleasant afternoon read.