I've been waiting to read this for a VERY long time and there's a COVID story behind the wait. I had it on ILL hold at my library when COVID struck. At that point, it was only a couple of years old. However, my library didn't own it and it was already (way back then) outside the date range for making a patron purchase request. Titles have to be less than a year old for my library to approve patron requests to purchase.
So I had to put in an inter-library loan request (ILL) for it, and with COVID restrictions, it was cancelled. Furthermore, that service was put on hold indefinitely at my library until just recently. About three months ago my library re-started placing ILL requests but didn't announce it was doing so. I found out entirely by happenstance. However, I was able to put in my (new) ILL request and it came pretty quickly.
Many thanks to the Okmulgee, Oklahoma library for fulfilling this reader's ILL request!
By this point, the book is kinda older, published in 2017, I think. But it's lauded as an example of a "kid MC in close proximity to dead bodies via a family mortuary" which I think, back then, was radically new. It's not now, and I'll do a list of other such similar setting books in BiblioCommons, but that's beside the point.
I loved this book!
Douglas thinks he's got death figured out. Seeing, touching, dealing with dead people and their grieving families is no big deal, not when you grow up in the family mortuary, Mortimer Family Funeral Home. He lives in the "house" above the coffin showroom and viewing parlor. Death seems to be natural, normal, the way of life… until it isn't.
A murder victim is brought in to be cleaned up and taken care of by his parents. For the first time, Douglas isn't allowed to view or handle the person and hears whispers of why from the gravediggers: there's an "M" carved into the victim's cheek. On his face!
Douglas' best friend, Lowell, a police officer's son, speculates the letter stands for "murder" or, ominously, "monster."
And suddenly death is anything but natural. Because the bodies keep coming, each with a letter carved in their cheeks.
A serial killer is striking in Douglas' town, Cowlmouth, and death is no longer normal in the cycle of life. It's an abrupt interruption. A foul ripping-of-the fabric-of-a-life-well-lived. It's nothing short of monstruous.
And as Douglas quickly discovers, the killer has no intentions of stopping.
I won't spoil how it ends, just know, this was a riveting read from cover to cover, if a bit grim, and I enjoyed every word of it!
