The night before a funeral that will thrust the mountain town of Gainesboro, North Carolina, into the national spotlight, the body is stolen from the embalming room and funeral director Barry Clayton is knocked unconscious. Ouch. How will Clayton & Clayton deal with the relatives of Y'Grok Eban, the Montagnard hero who aided US troops during the Vietnam War, or the U.S. Senator, three-star general, and famous Hollywood star en route to Y'Grok's service?

Barry's friend, Sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkins has a very personal interest in the missing Y'Grok--the Montagnard had saved his life. So does the Boston detective who also owes his life to Y'Grok and received a death-bed summons from the cancer-stricken old man: "Raven has come home." The three men pledge to crack Y'Grok's code, recover not just the body but a piece of a long-buried past, and deal with new death and betrayal. Is it a heroic or a foolish undertaking?

Reviews

There have been undertakers who solved crimes before Mark de Castrique introduced us to Barry Clayton, but they were all a bit jaunty for my taste. Clayton is a former Charlotte police officer who returned to his mountain hometown to take over the family funeral business when his father's Alzheimer's disease derailed him. Clayton isn't pompous or ponderous, but he knows that his work is important to the people involved, a calling to be carried out with respect.

"Foolish Undertaking," de Castrique's third mystery about Clayton, is a gripping, sharply written, complex tale about the Montagnards--Vietnamese tribesmen whose ferocious courage and loyalty saved the lives of many U.S. troops during the war. When a beloved Montagnard leader who lived in the area dies of cancer, a large funeral is planned, with celebrity mourners coming from across the country. But as Clayton is working on the remains, he is attacked and the body stolen.

The subtle ways de Castrique captures the physical and human geography of a unique part of the American South are as important and as impressive as his narrative skills. -- Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune, 3/19/2006.

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"Adept at both the grizzly and the graceful, de Castrique has produced a marvelous mystery you won't want to put down."

--Publishers Weekly on Dangerous Undertaking

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*STARRED* REVIEW

De Castrique returns with his third adventure featuring undertaker Barry Clayton. When his father was stricken with Alzheimer's, Barry left a police career in Charlotte to return to his tiny Appalachian hometown of Gainesboro, North Carolina, to help run the family funeral business. Barry's loving, respectful relationships with his parents and uncle are part of what makes him such a compelling protagonist: family loyalty is the driving force in his life. In this adventure, Barry is preparing for the funeral of Vietnamese Y'Grok Eban. Y'Grok was part of the Montagnards, a fiercely loyal resistance group who helped save the lives of countless Americans during the Vietnam War-including that of Gainesboro sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkins. When someone attacks Barry and steals Y'Grok's body, the likable undertaker has more than embarrassment to worry about: several Montagnards are in town for the funeral and suspect a political motive for the theft. And what will Barry tell Y'Grok's son? As Barry works with visiting Boston detective Kevin Malone to find the body, he digs up a lot more than he bargained for. Another stellar entry in an outstanding series that deserves wider recognition: the family focus and rural North Carolina setting make it a natural for Margaret Maron fans. -Jenny McLarin, Booklist (2.1.2006)

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"What really stands out about this series is de Castrique’s rich yet respectful portrait of life in the Appalachians."

--Booklist on Grave Undertaking

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In the fictional mountain town of Gainesboro, North Carolina, funeral director Barry Clayton is in for the shock of his life. The night before the high-profile funeral of 'Grok Eban, a heroic Montagnard who assisted US troops in the Vietnam War, Barry is

knocked out in the embalming room. When he comes to stolen, but why? Does it have anything to do with the covert missions that took place on the other side of the globe almost forty years ago? Or the enigmatic message Y’Grok sent to war buddy and Boston cop Kevin Malone just before he died: "Raven has come home." The premise of Foolish Undertaking is irresistible, the historical focus on the Montagnards is fascinating, but most importantly, the execution of this mystery is flawless. Following Dangerous

Undertaking (2003) and Grave Undertaking (2004), this is the third entry in Mr. de Castrique's series his best. Foolish Undertaking succeeds on every level, from its large cast of real and vivid characters to the steadily mounting tension and the handful of completely unexpected plot twists. Take a trip to Gainesboro. You'll love this original and absorbing mystery.

--Crimespree Magazine