#BookReview The Undertaker's Daughter by Sara Blaedel @GrandCentralPub

The Undertaker's Daughter by Sara Blaedel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Already widowed by the age of forty, Ilka Nichols Jensen, a school portrait photographer, leads a modest, regimented, and uneventful life in Copenhagen. Until unexpected news rocks her quiet existence: Her father–who walked out suddenly and inexplicably on the family more than three decades ago–has died. And he’s left her something in his will: his funeral home. In Racine, Wisconsin.

Clinging to this last shred of communication from the father she hasn’t heard from since childhood, Ilka makes an uncharacteristically rash decision and jumps on a plane to Wisconsin. Desperate for a connection to the parent she never really knew, she plans to visit the funeral home and go through her father’s things–hoping for some insight into his new life in America–before preparing the business for a quick sale.

But when she stumbles on an unsolved murder, and a killer who seems to still be very much alive, the undertaker’s daughter realizes she might be in over her head . . . 

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The Undertaker's Daughter is definitely something completely different from what I had expected when it comes to a Sara Blaedel book. For one thing, it did not feel like a thriller, more a mystery book. And, despite the serious subject did the book feel a lot more humorous than I had expected. You know the sad kind of humor when everything goes wrong, but in a funny kind of way. Like in this book when Ilka is out shopping for a coffin when the coffin that ass ordered wouldn't be delivered because of debts.

The book is, despite the lack of suspense still good. I breezed through the book and I found the book fascinating to read when it came to the difference between funerals in the United States and in Scandinavia. This is a book that does not answer all the questions, there is a cliffhanger in the end and I will definitely read the next book to know what will happen to the funeral home, and to find out more about Sister Eileen who seems very mysterious.

As for the unsolved murder, this is actually the books weakest point in my opinion. It's not like Ilka does much to solve the cold case, it's more that everything happens around the dead body that is found. Ilka is more a bystander than an active solver of the murder.

The best part of this book is definitely everything concerning the funeral home, Ilka trying to get to grips with her father's legacy and it will be interesting to read the next book to see what happens next.

I want to thank Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

The Undertaker's Daughter by Sara Blaedel