Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
SECRETS, LIES, & CRAWFISH PIES by Abby L. Vandiver (published June 12, 2018 by Henery Press) is the first novel in the Romaine Wilder Mystery series. Romaine Wilder has recently lost her job as a medical examiner in Chicago. She returns to her small hometown in East Texas, and almost immediately stumbles upon a dead body in her aunt’s funeral home. Now, finding a dead body in a funeral home shouldn’t be that big of a surprise – except this body shouldn’t be there. It turns out that this person was murdered, and then his body was dumped at the funeral home to dispose of it. Romaine reluctantly teams up with her overzealous, nosy Auntie Zanne to figure out how and why the corpse wound up in her funeral home, and find the killer.
I found SECRETS, LIES, & CRAWFISH PIES to be a very fun novel. There are many times where I laughed out loud. And Auntie Zanne is one of my new favorite amateur sleuths. She’s eccentric, she’s determined, and she’s not going to let anyone come between her and her many missions. She also steals the show from her niece! Romaine is an equally interesting character, and she perfectly balances out her aunt as the two work together. The author also brings small town Texas to life. The descriptions made me feel like I was right there in Robel, Texas. The mystery aspect also kept me guessing throughout the novel – there were numerous suspects and motives. The secondary plot lines were also intriguing and helped move the story along.