Dark Undertakings [Hardcover]

Rebecca Tope (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2001

Fifty-five-year-old Jim Lapsford makes an unusually healthy-looking corpse. A life-long devotee of vitamin pills and herbal remedies, it seems almost ironic that he has succumbed to a heart attack, but his doctor is convinced that this is the case.

Trainee undertaker Drew Slocombe isn't so sure. As an ex-nurse, Drew is convinced that there is enough conflicting medical evidence to merit a coroner's inquest at least. And then there's Jim's personal life: in addition to a long-suffering wife, two sons, and a grieving terrier, Jim appears to have left behind a series of scorned mistresses.

Everyone else seems happy to accept the doctor's verdict, and Drew knows he shouldn't rock the boat. But can he really turn his back on murder? With plenty of suspects, zero proof, and Jim's cremation just days away, Drew sure has his work cut out for him...

Smart, engrossing, and delightfully refreshing, Dark Undertakings is another great mystery from rising star Rebecca Tope.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reading British author Tope's second novel (after her strong debut, 2000's A Dirty Death), set in the village of Bradbourne, is like sitting in a room full of people you hardly know listening to them talk endlessly about people you don't know at all. Jim Lapsford was the picture of health when he died of a massive coronary. Or was he poisoned, as trainee mortician Drew Slocombe suspects? The family doctor has diagnosed the coronary, and Slocombe is in no position to voice his opinion. In a week Lapsford will be cremated, the evidence destroyed. Obsessed with guilt over the loss of a sick child under his care while he was a nurse in a pediatric ward (a loss he was judged innocent of but for which he feels responsible just the same), he cannot "forget" his suspicion. But how to prove it without an autopsy? Lapsford was apparently a good husband and father, well liked by everyone. But in fact he was an incorrigible womanizer, hated by many including his younger son. Seeking clues, Slocombe learns why one of Lapford's mistresses describes Bradbourne as "the town without a soul." Slocombe is an inept detective for whom guesses and assumptions pass for facts. His obsessive psychology is as tedious as everyone else's. It all reminds one of a comment by a Seinfeld character who didn't like the movie The English Patient "Why doesn't he just finish his stupid story about the desert and die already!" Nonetheless, cozy fans who enjoyed A Dirty Death won't be disappointed.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Drew Slocombe, a former nurse, finds new work with a firm of undertakers in Bradbourne, England. Suspicious that the handsome and fit 55-year-old man whose body they just transported to the morgue did not die of a heart attack as his doctor too hastily avers Drew begins a surreptitious investigation of his own before a planned cremation can annihilate all evidence. The lengthy exposition uncovers many with a motive for murder, including two-timed women and a disaffected adopted son. Firmly planted in the "cozy" tradition, this second entry in Tope's Drew Slocombe series (after A Dirty Death) makes a fine addition to any collection.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (June 23, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312265700
• ISBN-13: 978-0312265700
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,046,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clever plotting, June 5, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dark Undertakings (Hardcover)

Fifty-five-year-old Jim Lapsford was in perfect health. He had not seen a doctor since 1986 until he went last week to see Dr. Lloyd for a bum knee. Now Jim is dead with Dr. Lloyd insisting, without any examination, Jim died from a heart attack

Only an undertake trainee for a month, Drew Slocombe feels something is wrong with the way Dr. Lloyd handles the death, especially someone as healthy as Jim apparently was. Drew begins to wonder if a homicide has occurred. Drew is unable to ignore his hunch because he carries guilt from what happened to a child at his previous job at a hospital. He investigates his feeling that a clever individual killed Jim even knowing it could cost him his latest position.

Once readers accept Drew's need to investigate against the policy of his employer and the expert opinion of a doctor, fans will find the story line quite an exciting amateur sleuth tale. Drew is a wonderful caring person and his spouse Karen is an ideal individual to help the audience understand the hero. The plot is clever as Rebecca Tope keeps the embalming fluid to a minimum and the suspense to a maximum in what is a unique undertaking.

Harriet Klausner