Bless Your Heart - Lindy Ryan

In pre-millenial Texas, three generations of Evans women run a smalltown funeral parlour.  Their business also covers protecting the town from Strigoi, the restless spirits of the dead.  A major incursion, plus their granddaughter in high school causes big problems.  

One look at the cover, you’d consider this to be both cute and arch.  It’s not quite that, but the early sections work well - deep fried Southern wisdom, combined with some actually well-written gore (one victim is literally gnawed to death by a toothless pensioner).  

Where the novel fails is in a clunking narrative and a mix of styles - high school novel, dark comic novel, police procedural and fantasy novel - and never really settles for either.  The 1999 timeframe seems odd, but with a key event taking police 25 years before and with the way the novel ends; I feel this might be the last we’ve not seen of The Evan’s’.  A sharper, more committed narrative might give the whole thing more bite, rather than gums.   It’s published by Rebellion on 18th July and I thank them for a preview copy.  #blessyourheart.