Title: The Case of the Washed-Up Corpse
Series: Grave Sisters Mysteries: Book 1
Author: Tam May
Genres: Historical Cozy Mystery
Release Date: April 26, 2025
New series!
Chosen for the Barnes & Noble Top Indie Favorite list!
It’s 1921, and Americans are still reeling from the effects of World War I. In Gyver, CA, on the California/Nevada border, three sisters own the only funeral home in town. The eldest, Eve, takes care of the administration and accounting. Middle sister Helena uses her scientific and medical knowledge for the more hands-on side of the business. Eighteen-year-old Violet, the youngest, skirts the edge of a flapper lifestyle, preferring parties and jazz to funeral services and burials.
Then, Gyver County’s newly appointed district attorney asks for their assistance in identifying the body of a young woman found along a remote part of the river. At first, the police think it’s suicide. Only it isn’t — it’s murder!
As far as the sisters are concerned, murder is police business. Their business is to see that the dead are laid to rest. But District Attorney Oliver Clarke needs their help, and they can’t say no.
What follows is a twisted tale with only a few clues to help untangle it: a missing engagement ring, a piece of rope, and a torn lapel.
Will Eve and her sisters succeed in bringing justice to a dead, innocent young woman?
You can get your copy of the book at a special promotional price of 99¢ at the following online retailers.
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Excerpt
“Would you like some coffee, Oliver?” Helena rose. “I’m sure Agnes still has the pot going.”
“That’s mighty nice of you,” he said. “But this isn’t exactly a social call.”
She glanced at her sister. “Don’t tell me you need our services at this time of night.”
“Death, like birth, waits for no one.” Eve brushed the last cake crumbs from dessert off her lap. “A good thing we filled the hearse with gas this afternoon.”
“It’s not quite that kind of service.” Oliver’s dark eyes grew serious. “I need a different kind of help. A woman was found dead, and we don’t know who she is.”
“Who’s ‘we’?” Helena asked.
“Me and the sheriff, of course,” he said. “And the county coroner. We’ve sent for Dr. Myers, but he’s a little difficult to locate at the moment.”
“All county men,” Eve murmured. “That means —”
“The woman did not die of natural causes,” Helena finished.
“We don’t know that yet,” he said. “We just got down there.”
“Down where?” Eve asked.
“The river.” He paused a moment. “Her body was washed up in the grass.”
“How horrible!” She shuddered.
“No more horrible than what we see,” her sister argued.
“You both know everybody in town,” Oliver said.
“We ought to,” Eve said. “Graves have been here since the town was built.”
“I thought you might know who she is.”
“You want us to look at the dead body?” Eve pressed her hands together.
Helena glanced at her. “It’s our business, isn’t it?”
“I’d like you to do more than that,” said Oliver. “You’re a doctor, aren’t you, Helena?” He glanced at her.
“I studied medicine, but they wouldn’t let me get a license.” A note of bitterness lingered in her voice.
“You have the knowledge and the training,” he insisted. “It looks as if it’s going to take a while before Dr. Myers gets there for the official ruling.”
“It’s that serious?” Eve asked.
“It is for me,” he said softly.
“Your first murder case in Gyver,” Helena remarked.
“Murder, like birth and death, waits for no one,” he said with a little irony.
Eve rose. “We’d better get our coats, then.”
“It won’t be pleasant, I’m afraid.” He helped Eve with hers. “She’s been in the water for some time. That much we do know.”
“As Helena said, Oliver, death is our business,” Eve assured him.
“Agnes!” Helena called. “We’re going out with the district attorney.”
The housekeeper came out of the kitchen, a dish towel in one hand and the cake platter, washed and dripping, in the other. “What’re you wanting to do that for?”
“Because he asked us to,” Eve snapped.
“I think we ought to take the hearse,” Helena said. “We might need it.”
“You can follow me in my car.” Oliver put on his hat.
“What’re you bothering these girls for?” Agnes glared at the man. “Ain’t you got the whole police station and courthouse at your beck and call? Zak never bothered anybody in town at this time of night.”
“I won’t keep them out long, Mrs. Bishop,” he promised.
“Shouldn’t be keeping them out at all,” the woman grumbled. “They need their beauty sleep.”
“You must excuse Agnes,” Helena said. “She still thinks of us as her little goslings.”
“Ain’t these girls got enough on their minds without being bothered by district attorneys?”
“Don’t be inhospitable, Agnes,” Eve said.
“I swear to have them back before ten, ma’am.” Oliver bowed.
“If Vi comes home before we do, make sure she gets to bed,” Eve instructed.
“She won’t be back before midnight, that wild kitten,” the woman snorted.
“I’ll tell the sheriff to send a deputy after her if she’s not back by the time we are,” Oliver said.
“Thank you.” Eve’s breath eased.
About the Author
Writing has been Tam May’s voice since the age of fourteen. She writes stories set in the past featuring sassy, sensitive women characters. Tam is the author of the Adele Gossling Mysteries, which takes place in the early 20th century and features suffragist and epistolary expert Adele Gossling whose talent for solving crimes doesn’t sit well with her town’s conventional ideas about women. Tam also has a new series, the Grave Sisters Mysteries, about three sisters who own a funeral home and help the county D.A. solve crimes in a 1920s small California town, set to release in 2025. She has also written historical fiction about women breaking loose from the social and psychological expectations of their era. Although Tam left her heart in San Francisco, she lives in the Midwest because it’s cheaper. When she’s not writing, she’s devouring everything classic (books, films, art, music), concocting yummy plant-based dishes, and exploring her new riverside town.
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Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Tam-May/e/B01N7BQZ9Y/
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