Grave New World by Gena Showalter and Jill Monroe [Review]

Grave New World (Jane Ladling Mystery #7) by Gena Showalter and Jill Monroe
Format: ebook
Source: purchased
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: April 30, 2024

Jane Ladling Mystery
1. Romancing the Gravestone
2. No Gravestone Left Unturned
3. Game of Gravestones
4. Twelve Graves of Christmas
5. Conrad: Falling for the Gravekeeper
6. Grave Wars
7. Grave New World - Paperback | Kindle

Gena Showalter
| Website | Amazon |

Jill Monroe
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Jane Ladling cordially invites you to the world’s most romantic wedding. But first, there’s a few items to check off her to-do list.

• Actually plan the festivities
• Find a way to pay for said festivities
• Avoid finding a dead body. OOPS! Solve a murder

As the owner of a landlocked cemetery and self-proclaimed expert amateur sleuth, Jane knows death inside and out. After receiving an invite to speak at a local writer’s club, she discovers a dead body upon arrival, plus an invitation from the killer.

Player one is ready. Are you?

Now the game is on!

With a newly elected (smoking hot) sheriff who doubles as her overprotective fiancé, a gaggle of enabling best friends, and a lovingly vicious guardcat at her side, the intrepid Jane has no doubt she’ll win. But as clues lead everywhere and nowhere at once, another victim is discovered, and an ancient family curse rears its ugly head. Jane realizes she’s caught in a battle between cat and mouse. To succeed, she’ll have to lay a trap of her own…

Thoughts on Grave New World: Jane's finally admitted to herself (and everyone around her) that she loves Conrad and wants to spend her life with him and things are moving swimmingly in the matrimonial direction. Then a dead body crosses Jane's path and it starts to look like Jane might be in more danger than anybody is comfortable with.

Naturally, Jane sets out to solve the murder in her patented convoluted way. Fortunately for her, Conrad loves the dips and turns and pretzel-like twists her mind makes as she works her way through motives and means. Also fortunately for her, her friends and family are used to the things she'll do to get answers and they stick close to try and keep her out of trouble. Not that they always succeed, but Beau and crew are usually nearby when things go south.

Between wedding planning and murder solving, Jane is also trying her hand at writing a book. Which actually has something to do with the murder-solving part, but Jane is determined to see this new endeavor through. Which means she's plotting her novel, working out who might have done the actual murder, and trying to figure out how to make her upcoming special day as special as possible.

A little danger, plenty of good food to go around, friends who will di everything possible to keep Jane safe, a sexy sheriff who adores Jane and all her wily ways, and a lady who makes fantastic mental leaps and somehow ends up exactly where she needs to be. I'm sorry to see this crew go, but BOY they were a fun ride!