Body Movers

Author: Stephanie Bond
Published: August 2006 (Mira)
Category: Mystery
Rating: 6/10

Poor Carlotta Wren. In a Bones-esque parental situation, her white-collar-crime father jumped bail with their mother, 10 years ago, leaving an 18-year-old Carlotta to raise her younger brother Wesley. Carlotta went from living in a mansion to a townhouse, and works as a Neiman Marcus salesgirl. Her fiance, Peter Ashford, dumped her when her stained family could damage his reputation. Wesley is no help, owing a lot of money to loan sharks and they're knee-deep in late bills as is. To make things worse, Wesley has just been arrested for hacking into the city's computer system to erase a friend's tickets and to get information on his parents' case.

To make extra money to cover his gambling debts, Wesley takes on a job as a body mover. He moves dead bodies to the morgue or funeral home with his boss, Coop, a guy with a past. He's also extremely good looking and willing to give Wesley a chance to put his past behind him, as Coop has also done. He's a good father figure to Wesley. It's just too bad that Wesley is too stupid to make responsible decisions.

Through Wesley's new job, Carlotta finds out that Angela Ashford, one of her Neiman Marcus clients, has died under suspicious circumstances. Due to Carlotta and Peter's history, they become suspects in the murder of Angela. Because the detective have something against Carlotta, they're not taking her seriously even though she has potential evidence for the case, and she winds up taking the investigation into her own hands. She's not that slick about it, but she's pretty good at turning up information. Of course, her investigation gets her into a very sticky situation at the end of the book, you know, that mystery "ta-da" moment where everythin falls into place and the murderer is revealed.

The mystery was put together nicely, but I felt like I never really got to know the characters. Their development didn't seem very deep and there were no memorable lines (hence no "quote of choice" in my heading). At the end, Carlotta's long-lost father calls and we're left at a cliffhanger for the next book in the series.