A cemetery convention isn't all that glamorous, but when down-on-her-luck socialite and current Cleveland cemetery tour guide, Pepper Martin gets the chance to go to Chicago for the event, she jumps at the chance. Shopping, good restaurants, did I mention shopping--what's not to like?
Madeleine Appears
Being a cemetery guide is the perfect job for Pepper. Even since she hit her head on a tombstone, she's been seeing ghosts--and talking with them, too. In fact, she's been running a regular private detective agency for the dead. Her past clients have included a mafia don, the sister of a best-selling author, and a hot--but very dead--rock star. Would it be too much to ask to get through the Chicago event without meeting another ghost?
One of the first events at the convention is a tour of the city's Garden View cemetery, which is filled with stone monuments honoring the city's past leaders and social elite, among others. About midway through the tour, Pepper is drawn aside by a woman in a lab coat hovering near one of the graves. As the others are not noticing, Pepper has a really bad feeling that this woman isn't among the living. Sure enough, it's Madeline, the former assistant to Doctor Gerard, a Chicago doctor who is conducting a study of brain waves.
Missing Patients
According to Madeline, the good doctor's study is not quite legal. What's more: the homeless applicants he is getting for the study are never heard from again after being admitted to the program. If that's not enough, Pepper's friend (and possible future love interest), Dan is working for the doctor. Is he involved in the scheme? Is there really something illegal and possibly lethal going on? Pepper spends the rest of her trip to the Windy City trying to find out, almost losing a part of herself in the process.
Night of the Loving Dead is another crisp, fun-to-read, and well-constructed novel from Casey Daniels, who reveals just enough in each novel in the Pepper Martin series to intrigue the reader yet leaving them eager for the next installment.
About Casey Daniels
Casey Daniels is a Cleveland Ohio-based writer, with a self-confessed passion for cemeteries. A lifelong Clevelander, daughter of a police officer, and former journalist, she brings a unique mix of experience to her writing. She counts Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle among her favorite mystery authors. Ms. Daniels has penned numerous romance novels. Her first mystery novel, Don of the Dead, was published in 2006, followed by The Chick and the Dead later that year and Tombs on Endearment in 2007.
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