The Undertaker's Daughter by Sara Blaedel (#1 Ilka Jensen)

 The first book in a new series by one of my favorite authors!

Forty-year-old Ilka Nichols Jensen travels from Denmark to Racine, Wisconsin, USA, when her estranged father dies and leaves her his business -- a funeral home. Ilka's life as a widow in Copenhagen was nice and peaceful, she took school portraits for a living, and her mom and partner were close by. A nice, uncomplicated life. She's quite shocked when she finds out that the father who had abandoned them when she was 7 years old had made a new life in Racine. So what is she to do? She travels to Racine and finds not only a funeral business on the brink of bankruptcy, but a decades old murder mystery. The bodies keep on coming to the funeral home and Ilka finds herself in the middle of a huge mess. At first just eager to sort things and return home, she comes intent on discovering more about her father and the art of undertaking.

I really enjoyed this departure from the Louise Rick series for a couple of reasons. For one thing, I've always been secretly fascinated by the whole funeral business and actually considered whether to train in Mortuary Science so that I could work in one (before I found out how "family" controlled that the whole business actually is -- well, aside from the big conglomerates.) So I found the details absolutely fascinating as I believe it is both an art and a science to care for the dead and a ministry to attend to the families. I found the author's note explaining why she wrote this book quite illuminating and very easy to understand why she decided to write about this topic. Secondly, I loved the main character -- Ilka. What an unusual woman and an atypical protagonist. She's strong but sensitive, and I can't wait to learn more about her. Sure she has her personal demons, and coming to the USA where things were so different for her was quite a feat. I assume she's staying on at the funeral home and am eager to see how she assimilates in this unfamiliar territory.

So - it is not your typical Blaedel suspense thriller or police procedural, but there is a mystery and lots of intrigue. I'm sure the secondary characters will be developed further as well. And I can't wait to see what happens next as the book ended on a bit of a cliffhanger!

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the e-book ARC of this to read and review.