The ending that I most dread in a book ... to be continued ... This is not a stand alone book. It is part of a series! Mostly a blasé book with a very small mystery element thrown in. Everything was just OK, the storyline, the characters, etc. There was never really a defining moment of “there it is” and then to have it end without finishing it, was just too much for me. Not a series I plan on continuing with.

Blaedel has written a novel that I started with some trepidation, but found myself immersed in and pulling for the protag during some awkward times. I loved her determination

The Undertaker's Daughter by Sara Blaedel is a standalone (or the first in a new series) and not part of her series featuring Louise Rick.

It differs from Blaedel's other series: it is set in the U.S. rather than in Denmark and the main character is a school photographer rather than a detective.

Some thirty years ago, Ilka Jensen's father deserted his family, and Ilka is shocked to learn that on her father's death three decades later, he has left her his funeral home in the U.S. Ilka flies to Racine, Wisconsin to settle the estate. She plans to sell the funeral home, but also to find out more about the father who deserted his family.

However, when a body at the funeral home is vandalized, an old unsolved murder interferes with Ilka's plan for a quick sale of the business.

The Undertaker's Daughter is a rather quiet mystery, but an intriguing one. I liked it and enjoyed the slower pace that had time for information about a business most of us would rather not discuss.

Blog review scheduled for Jan. 18, 2018

NetGalley/Hachette Book Group

Mystery. Feb. 6, 2018. Print length: 336 pages.

Racine Wisconsin is very close to where I live, a skip and a hop. I was blown away with her story of Ilka. A girl very young whose father left for America who never contacted her again. Ilya lived with her mother who ended up running the fathers business which was a funeral home, selling it and divorcing him. On his death he left Ilka his business which was a funeral home in Racine Wisconsin and his debts with it. She goes to America and live through some wild times, she'd rather have forgotten. She ends up reading a letter which has been delivered that day. The promise of the next book.

Blaedel introduces us to a new character, Ilke Jensen, living in Denmark, keeping up with her late husband's school photography business. A young widow, whose father left for America early on leaving her mother to handle the funeral business he ran.

When she must go to America when he dies to handle his affairs, she discovers he was also in the funeral business in Racine, Wisconsin. Now she must clear his debts and decide if she will sell or not. And it is obvious her step-mother and half sisters want nothing to do with the funeral home or her.

And when the dead won't stay where they belong, the mystery deepens. With no one to trust or lean on and in a foreign country as well, Ilke is having second thoughts on even being in the U.S.

This should be a good new series. Ilke is straightforward. To the point. I like that. Now I have to wait for the next one. And there most certainly will be a next one!

Netgalley/Grand Central Publishing Feb. 06, 2018

Thank you Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the eARC.
Having read the excellent Louise Rick series, I was really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, it was disappointing. Not much of a mystery, more the tale of a dysfunctional family, I couldn't really warm up to the protagonist, Ilka Jensen. Her father abandoned her and her mother when she was 7, and when he passes away in Wisconsin, she flies there to find out she has inherited his funeral home. Yes, she had a sad childhood, but she is not a likeable woman. The bleak surroundings and the details of the life of a funeral director are well written, but a bit grim and the open ending (to set up for the next book) was disappointing. I will probably not rread it.

The Undertaker’s Daughter
by Sara Blaedel

The Undertaker's Daughter

Copyright: 2018

Pages: 320

Read: Nov. 26 –28, 2017

Rating: 3/5

Source: NetGalley





Blurb: 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 Ilka and her mother more than three decades ago–has died. And he’s left Ilka 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. Desperately hoping to gain some insight into her father’s life, she plans to visit the funeral home and go through her father’s things before preparing the business for a quick sale.

But shortly after her arrival, one of the bodies in the morgue is vandalized. The dead man, Mike, was suspected of killing his girlfriend in high school, but disappeared from Racine and was never seen again–until recently. Disturbed by the attack, Ilka resolves to find out what really happened all those years ago….

Review: I hadn’t signed on to my NetGalley account in probably more than a year … I’m not exactly sure what made me log in randomly one day last week, but I figured why not? I browsed around a little bit and checked out my auto-approved options … this book was one of those. So I figured I’d give it a shot – the blurb appealed to me almost immediately. Plus I have a friend who lives like 30 minutes from Racine, so I thought it would be interesting to read a book set there!

So what was my opinion? This book was extremely easy for me to read. I flew through it in 2 days flat. But …. it wasn’t necessarily compelling I suppose you could say. I think I was expecting this to be more mystery/thriller than this ended up being. I expected Ilka to follow through on the “find out what really happened” part mentioned in the blurb. That whole aspect of the book seemed to take more of a backseat. Yes, we did “find out what really happened” but it was not because Ilka solved the case – like I was sort of expecting.

I enjoyed Ilka’s character to a certain extent. I didn’t care for her very relaxed opinion towards sex at all. And I didn’t find it very believable that someone who had been a school photographer back home could suddenly start dealing with dead bodies (some in pretty nasty shape) with little to no problem. I did appreciate her drive and resolve to turn her father’s funeral home around. But honestly, she’s still sort of an enigma to me. The character development was a little bit all over the place. Every character had their quirks that were discussed at some point, but I never really felt like I got to know any of them. They were all still shrouded in mystery…. maybe that was supposed to be the draw of this series?

I’m not exactly sure what more to say. It really wasn’t a bad book … it just wasn’t what I expected it to be. I needed just a little bit more mystery in this book. And more character development. Plus … it ended in a cliffhanger – just, no! A huge pet peeve. I’m not sure I’ll read more in this series as it is released, but I do look forward to trying out Ms. Blaedel’s Louise Rick series in the future.

Okay, I REALLY hate to not finish a book. Especially a book by an author that I really like. I love Sara's Louise Rick series and was excited for a new book by her.

I made it about 40% through this book before giving up. I didn't have any problems with the main character, I just didn't see the mystery and thriller that this book was supposed to be.

I can't give a better review on this book since I didn't finish it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the copy.

2 and 1 / 2 stars

At age forty, Ilka inherits her father’s funeral business in Racine, Wisconsin. She travels from Copenhagen to take over the business.

Although Ilka has some good memories of her childhood and her father when she was a young girl, he did abandon her mother and Ilka when she was seven-years old.

However, Ilka doesn’t like herself very well. She sleeps around with unknown men to “release stress.” There was too much of this in the book. It was a major determent to my liking the book. I couldn’t get past that.

It’s not a bad mystery – but it wasn’t my style. The writing I felt was uneven, as was the plot. It wasn’t really a mystery, either. I would class the book more as adult fiction – with a warning label about the gratuitous sex.

I want to thank NetGalley and Hatchett Book Group/Grand Central Publishing for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read.

I felt abandoned at the end of this mystery about a stunningly dysfunctional and unlikeable family. Blaedel leaves us with a series of unresolved plot lines and a weird and terse "to be continued" final paragraph. Ilka is a bit of a mess, and I get why—to a degree—but I wanted some character development somewhere and I got none from her or any of the other characters. I still don't know why her dad left and why she came to the U.S. at his behest or why she lets people get away with treating her like mud or why they think they can. Or why the "mystery" is part of this book at all. Is there a story beyond or beneath all this that I simply missed? I hope so. Blaedel is a good writer and I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't.

This is a well written book, but I just couldn't get into it. The main character, Ilka who's father abandoned her when she was young has left her something in his will, so she travels to Wisconsin against her bitter mother's wishes to check it out. She is picked up but finds out her hotel reservation is lost, so she has to go to and stay in her father's old bedroom. She is suppose to met the guy who picked her up the next day, but she blows him off and stays in her room. Eventually, he just slides the papers under the door and she signs them. Next morning an old lady tells her to get up out of bed, she is now the director of the funeral home her father owned and she has clients to take care of. She complies and is thrown into the world of a grieving family. After that, mayhem ensues at the funeral home and there is a mystery to solve. This book had more of an emphasis on the funeral home business than the crime solving business.

I love Sara Blaedel's Louise Rich series. I was so excited to see she has a new book coming out, unfortunately this just wasn't to my taste. I thought I had learned all I wanted to know about embalming from a college speech class. I was right, this goes even more in depth to the processes. The characters did not grab my interest. Here's hoping her next one is a Louise Rich book.
Goodreads

Seriously? This is the queen of Danish crime fiction? Well, that's hugely disappointing. And to think I was so excited to see her new book available on Netgalley, thought finally this is the time I discover Blaedel for myself. The book itself is a overwhelmingly underwhelming story of a 40 year old woman who comes from Copenhagen to Racine USA to inherit her estranged and now dead father's funeral business. One, that despite not knowing much about and despite being in a severe debt, she decides to take on anyway. One of the bodies found ends up being part of a criminal investigation, but that part of the story is so small, it's barely enough to qualify this as a crime fiction, it's more of a drama with some crime. The protagonist is not particularly likeable and lacks any sort of charisma, she makes inexplicable decisions, relaxes by casual sex with random men and occasionally ponders how much her native country is more sophisticated in so many ways, which, of course, it is. But for a reader it's difficult to care about Ilka at all or much of anyone in this book for that matter. Scandinavian fiction is known for a sort of understated matter of fact narration, but here it somehow translated into dispassionate and flat. Readable enough, but not much to recommend itself. Would have been just good enough, but the author felt the need to slap an absolutely ridiculous and completely unnecessary To Be Continued ending on it, literally last minute sort of thing that doesn't add up logistically, not to mention why would you want to spend more time with this lackluster bunch. Not a complete waste of time, but close to it, mostly just a let down based on any preconceived expectations. Nothing regal or royalty worthy about this blandness. Thanks Netgalley.

After her parent’s divorce, Ilka and her mother left the U.S. to live in Copenhagen. Now an adult, Ilka make a living taking children’s school pictures. It’s not exciting, but it pays the bills. When her father dies, Ilka receives word that he has left her his business – a funeral home, it’s a surprise as she’s had no contact with him for years. She decides to go the U.S., to Racine, Wisconsin to see what her father has left her and to try to get some idea about what type of man her father was. The plan is to sell the business, but that gets put on fold when a man’s body is found, a man who was beaten to death. A man rumored to have killed his high school girlfriend years ago. This is billed as suspense, but in truth, it reads more like straight fiction, as Ilka tries to come to grips with her own past. The end of the story does have an element of suspense and Blaedel is a wonderful writer – just don’t expect a thriller

Torn and conflicted is the best way to describe my feelings about The Undertaker’s Daughter. I am a big fan of Sara Blaedel’s Louise Rick series; so I was very excited when I found out Blaedel was starting a new series. Unfortunately, there were a few issues with this book that prevented me from loving it as much as I hoped I would.
I am conflicted over this book because I was disappointed with Ilka. I thought I would be reading a amateur detective story. I assumed Ilka was going to solve the mystery and help bring the criminal to justice. However, the mystery is more of an event that is happening around Ilka. While she is curious about the crime and does ask questions if the opportunity arrives, she is not trying to solve the crime. It’s as if the crime is a background story to Ilka’s ongoing issues with the funeral home.
Another issue I had with this book was the lack of character development. Information about the characters, Ilka included, was scattered throughout the book but details were not given. I did not get to know any of the characters which made it hard to become invested in them and want to continue reading. After reading the book, I still have so many questions about most of the characters, many of their actions and thoughts were left unexplained. I understand that this book is a part of a series, so maybe I will get answers to these questions as more books are published.
I did enjoy seeing the U.S. from Ilka’s perspective. This is her first visit to America. She had strong opinions on the American healthcare system as well as how Americans deal with death. She often compares America to Denmark. I found these comparisons comical and interesting.
I rarely read the author’s acknowledgments but I felt I had to. The concept of this book, is so original I was hoping to find out what inspired Blaedel to base a new series on an Undertaker. In her acknowledgments, she shares the story behind this series. While the story is heartbreaking, I am glad I took the time to read it. When reading this book, I suggest you start with the acknowledgments, I think it will prepare you for the type of story you will be reading.
Overall, I found The Undertakers Daughter interesting but not very entertaining or compelling. It is obvious extensive research was conducted into the funeral industry but the lack of character development left me feeling indifferent to the characters. Which is not what I am used to from Blaedel. I will concede, I may have started reading this book with unfair expectations, comparing this book with Blaedel’s previous books. Despite this book falling a little flat for me, I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Will Ilka become the amateur detective I was hoping she would be? We must wait and see.

Murder and Moore Rating:
3 ½ out of 5 Stars