Tethered

June 16, 2008
MacKinnon's debut offers an authentic view of an undertaker's job, but the passivity of her emotionally wounded heroinemay exasperate some readers. In Brockton,Mass., lonely Clara Marsh tends to the dead at Bartholomew Funeral Home, whose kindly owner reminds Clara of the undertaker she met as a child at her mother's funeral. When Trecie, a neglected little girl, begins hanging around the funeral parlor, Clara thinks nothing of it until a routine body pickup uncovers a stash of child pornography and Clara recognizes Trecie in a video. The ensuing investigation also points to Precious Doe, an unidentified child murdered three years earlier and whose grave Clara often visits in secret. Aided by a sensitive Irish cop, Det. Mike Sullivan, to whom she's attracted, Clara tries to unravel the mystery, even if that means confronting her own unpleasant past. Some affecting, understated prose only partially redeems the flat story line.

August 1, 2008
Undertaker Clara Marsh doesnt believe in God. Its hardly a wonder; she has had little in life to give her cause for faith. After surviving the car accident that killed her free-spirited mother, she was raised by a grandmother who beat her with a brush and tore out her hair. When Clara finally escapes her grandmothers clutches, she enrolls in mortuary school and lands a job at a New England funeral home whose kindhearted owners take her in as their own. Clara finds herself drawn to the cold case of Precious Doe, an unidentified teen found murdered in the nearby woods. She senses its more than coincidence when a neglected young waif named Trecie appears in the funeral parlor where she works. Could Trecie be destined for the same fate as Precious Doe? Throughout her life, Clara has taken great pains to remain uninvolved in others lives. But this time its different. MacKinnons fascination with the inner workings of her uncles funeral business inspired this haunting, gracefully rendered debut.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)