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Summary
Summary
Funeral director and part-time sheriff Barry Clayton finds United States Junior Chamber (Jaycee) member Archie Donovan's request absurd until he learns the casket will be the centerpiece of the Jaycees' haunted house, a charity event with all proceeds going to the children's hospital. nbsp; But when the president of the Jaycees is murdered in the casket on Halloween, the national press descends upon Gainesboro to cover the bizarre crime.nbsp;Sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkins assigns Barry to be the lead investigator of a case that presents no motive and no suspects.nbsp;Then someone fires a shot at Archie Donovan, and Barry wonders whether the victim in the casket had even been the intended target. nbsp; Barry finds his police work and personal life on a collision course as his ex-wife Rachel comes to town with high hopes of using the story to launch her TV network career.nbsp;She begins prying into the lives of Gainesboro's most distinguished citizens and creates a backlash that leaves another body in its wake.nbsp;Old wounds are ripped open, family rifts exposed, and a criminal enterprise revealed that cuts to the heart of the community. nbsp; Barry Clayton must follow a trail of clues as winding as a forest path.nbsp;The unexpected destination: a mountainside of Christmas trees.nbsp;Somewhere behind these symbols of peace and goodwill lurks a killer.nbsp;Unmasking him will be a fatal undertaking.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
When the stabbed body of Jaycees president Carl Atkinson turns up in a coffin at the Jaycees' Halloween haunted house fund-raiser, Barry Clayton investigates in de Castrique's absorbing fifth mystery to feature the Gainesboro, N.C., undertaker and police officer. Since Carl wasn't supposed to be in the coffin, might someone else have been the intended victim? Barry's carefully ordered universe shifts on the arrival of his ex-wife, Rachel, a reporter for a cable news network, looking for the scoop of a lifetime. As Barry and his fellow cops try to solve the Atkinson murder without upsetting Carl's town-bigwig father, they must also contend with a shooting incident, an illicit affair, spousal abuse, and Christmas tree rustlers. Filled with ample wit, wry humor, and multiple plot twists, this is a fine place to start for anyone who has yet to meet Buryin' Barry and a welcome visit for those who have. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Who better to investigate a killing in a coffin than Buryin' Barry, deputy-cum-undertaker?Slick insurance man Archie Donovan wants funeral director Barry Clayton to lend him a coffin for the Jaycees' Halloween haunted house. It helps that Barry's girlfriend Susan came up with the idea and that Barry, as a deputy sheriff, has been assigned to monitor the event. But on Halloween night, Carl Atkinson, hard-drinking and obnoxious president of the Jaycees, fails to pop up from the coffin to scare House visitors because he's been stabbed in the back with a buck knife. Archie sheepishly confesses that his secret affair with Angel Crowder, whose husband Pete is a first-class hothead, may have made him the intended target. This theory gets traction when somebody takes a shot at Archie during Sheriff Tommy Lee's morning press conference. Tommy Lee puts Barry in charge of the case, straining relations with rival Reece Hutchins, and assigns him two dogged deputies. Even more strain comes in the person of Barry's ex-wife Rachel, now a fiercely ambitious TV reporter, who turns up like the proverbial bad penny. The case gets more complicated with the discovery that Carl was in deep to loan sharks and with a shaky confession that ties the murder to the death of a local war hero in a car accident.Buryin' Barry's fifth (Final Undertaking, 2007, etc.) is busy but a bit aimless. Still, de Castrique's style is clean and direct, ideal for the armchair sleuth.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Funeral director and part-time sheriff Barry Clayton's latest case begins when local businessman and Jaycee member Archie Donovan asks to borrow a casket for a Halloween haunted house. The charity event turns into a murder investigation when the Jaycee president is murdered in the casket, and the national press descends upon sleepy Gainesboro, North Carolina. As Barry investigates, readers will learn that North Carolina has a new major cash crop, Christmas trees, and that the workers who tend the trees are sometimes illegal immigrants. The murder victim, son of a local power broker, had plenty of enemies; but he was not the person who was supposed to be the ghost in the casket. Was he murdered by mistake? Complicating matters is the fact that one of the reporters on the scene is Barry's ex-wife, Rachel. In the fifth in his Undertaking series, de Castrique gives readers a tantalizing mystery full of humor and eccentric characters, along with a nice dollop of current social issues.--Bibel, Barbara Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
When the son of Gainesboro's (NC) wealthiest man is murdered in a coffin donated by funeral director Barry Clayton (Final Undertaking) to the Jaycees' Halloween fund-raiser, Barry investigates the crime in his other job as deputy sheriff. Complicating the situation is the arrival of Barry's ex-wife, an unstoppable investigative reporter. VERDICT De Castrique writes complicated mysteries that lead his sleuth on journeys of self-discovery while unwrapping the motivations behind murder. Here the focus is on how greed warps the human spirit. De Castrique's unassuming but commanding prose style is comparable to James Lee Burke and Margaret Maron. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 5/1/05.] (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.