Foolish Undertaking Book

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?

Publishers Weekly

Vietnam-era intrigue fuels Mark de Castrique's Foolish Undertaking, his thoughtful and timely third contemporary regional mystery to feature Gainesboro, N.C., undertaker Barry Clayton (after 2004's Dangerous Undertaking). Parallels with Iraq resonate throughout Clayton's risk-filled investigation involving the theft of a heroic Montagnard's body, veterans of the Vietnam conflict and some heavy-duty politicos protecting their interests. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.