Flowers for Her Grave: A Grim Reaper Mystery

In Clemens's action-filled third Grim Reaper mystery (after 2010's The Grim Reaper's Dance), Casey Maldonado tries to start fresh by moving to Florida, changing her name to Daisy Gray and beginning a career as a fitness instructor in a gated community. With Death as her unrelenting companion, however, Casey can't find peace for long. When someone attacks Andrea Parker, a woman in Casey's aerobics class, with an iron hand weight in a changing room with fatal results, Casey must decide whether to stay and help solve the crime or pack up and leave before there's any more trouble. The book offers plenty of suspense as well as humor, but the unusual premise is often more tiresome than it is clever. With Death insistently commenting on Casey's every move, its presence, at times, weighs not only on Casey but also on the reader. (Aug.)