No Comfort for the Undertaker (A Carrie Lisbon Mystery)
A combination of fine historical detail, an appealing protagonist, and perceptive writing make Keefer’s turn-of-the-century debut mystery a real page-turner. Carrie Lisbon, recently widowed, relocates to the village of Hope Bridge to find solace with her Uncle Sav and his friend Thomas Bale, an African, offered sanctuary by Sav after his home was burned down by vigilantes. In Hope Bridge, Carrie encounters lawlessness and prejudice and a bevy of supercilious white residents. In a brief early interlude, she lays out the body of a young girl and takes issue with church bias against burying the poor.
Working with the dead has been Carrie’s whole life, with her father, then her husband. She is used to rejection by doubting men. Wide-eyed indignation is her go-to reaction when men talk over her and undermine her professional ability. Under Sav’s calming influence, she is reminded if she is going to start afresh, she must convince Mr. Worley, the town’s only undertaker, that she is a consummate professional. That she has prematurely shed her widow’s black is cause for mostly female criticism, but Carrie refuses to accept society’s limitations on her sex.
When an abused young wife falls from a carriage, undertaker Worley requests her assistance. Contrary to his assessment, the evidence indicates something other than an accident. Initially, Carrie’s observations are ignored, but when the thuggish husband is shot dead, the county sheriff, who happens to be the dead man’s brother, surprises her with his neutral investigative stance.
Fascinating period detail is scattered liberally throughout the novel, never overwhelming a brisk and lively story. The part of the novel taking place in an intense rainstorm is exceedingly well written, its rivers of miserable cold flooding the narrative with tension. The novel leaves some avenues open to conjecture, so for this reader, there is no question the spirited Mrs. Lisbon deserves a sequel.
