Secret Undertaking

July 1, 2018
"Buryin' Barry" unearths a corrupt plot in his sleepy North Carolina town.Barry Clayton, who runs the only funeral home in Gainesboro, works part-time as a sheriff's deputy (Risky Undertaking, 2014, etc.). It's in the latter capacity that his lifelong antagonist, Archie Donovan Jr., approaches him with a dubious charitable scheme: Archie wants to be arrested during the Apple Festival Parade and then he'll raise money to be bailed out, with the proceeds going to the local Boys and Girls Club. The gesture will also, not incidentally, be good for Archie's insurance business. Then the parade is marred by a shooting--the Commissioner of Agriculture is injured, and Barry's beloved Uncle Wayne is gravely wounded as he tries to wrestle the gun away from the shooter, poverty-stricken Toby McKay, who's killed when his gun goes off in the struggle. Uncle Wayne, luckier but not much luckier, spends the next several days in the intensive care unit. The case seems straightforward until drunken Sonny McKay arrives at the hospital trying to explain why his father "did what he did." Once he sobers up, Sonny shuts down, at least about issues surrounding the shooting, and the local cops respond by getting a warrant to search McKay's house, where they find state police undertaking their own investigation. When Sonny is found dead in his trailer, a clean shot to the head, Barry realizes he's dealing with something a lot bigger than a spur-of-the-moment killing. Unraveling the complicated case requires him to collaborate with slick Archie and fend off the intrusions of multiple state and federal law enforcement agencies.The hero's easy charm in his seventh case makes the reader feel like a longtime Gainesboro resident and a sleuthing sidekick.

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July 16, 2018
Early in de Castrique’s fine seventh Buryin’ Barry mystery (after 2014’s Risky Undertaking), Barry Clayton, the director of the Clayton Funeral Home and part-time deputy sheriff in Gainesboro, N.C., meets with Janet Sinclair, who wants his help securing the future burial of herself and her husband, Robert, in the same plot as Robert’s parents in a New Jersey cemetery. Janet doesn’t make it clear why she wants to avoid dealing with a local funeral home. In looking into the Sinclairs’ unusual situation, Barry gets on a trail that leads to suspicious deaths, a scheme to defraud the U.S. government, and an attempt on the life of North Carolina’s commissioner of agriculture. The book is peopled with believable villains, in particular the fraudsters and liars, but it also features folks who show kindness, consideration, and a true respect for friendship. The story’s resolution is satisfying on many levels. De Castrique draws the reader into his protagonist’s world with consummate grace.

September 1, 2018

Barry Clayton runs his family's funeral home business and works as a part-time sheriff's deputy in Laurel County, NC. He also copes with the wild schemes of a former classmate, insurance agent Archie Donovan. Archie's latest plan is to be arrested on a float during the annual Apple Festival Parade, and raise funds for the local Boys and Girls Clubs while in jail. During the parade, the grand marshal is attacked, and Barry's elderly uncle saves him. Meanwhile, the owner of a convenience store is shot to death. Sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkins is shrewd enough to put everything together as food stamp fraud, but there's so much more involved. Barry goes undercover to check out convenience stores, but Archie's loony attempt to be a big shot in jail causes trouble. It seems the federal Witness Protection Program has a couple hiding in Laurel County. As bodies pile up, the sheriff wants to know if there's a convergence in his two cases. VERDICT The author follows Risky Undertaking with another intricately plotted story for fans of traditional mysteries. The dark humor, a small community in a regional mystery, and a strong supporting cast of believable characters will appeal to Margaret Maron's readers.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2018
Big-time crime comes to small-town North Carolina when a food-stamp scam becomes entangled with the Witness Protection Program. When the state commissioner of agriculture is shot during the Gainesboro Apple Festival Parade, assailant Toby McKay, an apple farmer who lost his last crop, is killed in a struggle with deputy Barry Clayton's elderly Uncle Wayne. Then McKay's food-stamp card is found in the pocket of a store owner who's just been murdered, and, in short order, McKay's adult son is killed. When Sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkins and Barry learn that Robert and Janet Sinclair, a new couple in town, are in WITSEC because he gave up his father, a New Jersey crime boss, they suspect Mob connections to the crimes, as various law enforcers?USDA, U.S. marshals, FBI?circle. De Castrique wraps up the plot neatly, along the way advancing the personal lives of deputy and undertaker Barry; his wife, surgeon Susan Miller; and the rest of his family. A solid series entry that takes on the problem of putting potentially dangerous WITSEC participants in the general population.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)