About Grave Words
Winter Snow has had it! With her business in a death drought, her best friend Scoop implicated in a string of arsons, and an obituary listing Winter herself as deceased, her life is heating up. But just as she’s trying to cool things down, she receives her newest assignment: an obituary for Chester, a homeless man found in a burning building.
Promising the local funeral home manager that she will have the obituary by the deadline, Winter is stonewalled at every turn, failing to discover Chester’s last name, or where he came from. When it is discovered that Chester was murdered and that the fire was set to cover it up, all fingers immediately point to Scoop. Not only is Scoop a person of interest in the arsons, he was also the last person to see Chester alive.
As more nails are pounded into Scoop’s coffin, Winter’s uncle Richard hopes to help by inviting the notorious town gossips, The Nosy Parkers, to a neighborhood food fest. Unfortunately, the breadcrumbs they toss set murder in motion.
More determined than ever, Winter must figure out the twists and turns of the case to clear Scoop’s name, putting her on a deadly deadline to solve the murder and avoid meeting the same grave consequences.
About the Guest Post
Grave Words - Character Guest Post for Jane Reads
By Gerri Lewis
Winter Snow, what is a nice girl like you doing writing obituaries for a living? I get that all the time and to tell the truth, sometimes I’m not sure I should be. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am passionate about obituaries although I am always defending them as more than end-of-life notifications and tributes. They facilitate acceptance for the grief-stricken. They immortalize a person for their earthly accomplishments. They are a piece of history that will live in genealogy research and community memory. In that sense, I am a keeper of the collective conscience.
Back in my reporter days, I was tapped to write the more sensitive stories. Even my buddy and colleague Scoop, who is one of the best writers I know, says that I had something the other reporters didn’t. He had that right. Suffering my own losses makes me empathetic.
The problem with my chosen profession is that it isn’t easy having to wait around for someone to die in order to earn the next paycheck. And in our small town of Ridgefield, Connecticut, people aren’t dying every day like they are in places like New York City, so I’ve been considering a part-time move to the Big Apple.
My friend Carla thinks I should stick close to home where my people have my back. She has a point. Obituary writing has landed me in some pretty deep water. When Carla asked for help writing an obit for a man experiencing homelessness nick-named Wandering Chester, we dug up a devious scam by a murderous couple, but not before putting ourselves in grave danger. Without the help of my family and friends, the next obituary written might have been mine.
Then there was Mrs. Roth Arlington who needed her obituary by the end of the work week. I thought maybe she was just doing some advance planning, something I recommend. Unfortunately, by Friday, Mrs. Arlington was no longer amongst the living. While researching her life, I unwittingly unearthed a chain of events that nearly put me, my boyfriend Kip, Scoop, and a young woman named Brittany Bennett six feet under.
No-one wants me to leave even if it is only part-time. Especially my Uncle Richard. He is the man who rode in on his white charger after my dad died, leaving my mom practically comatose. I was only ten at the time and I owe him everything. Including my ability to start an obituary-writing business when I got laid off as a reporter because Richard deeded his Lake Mamanasco cottage to me.
While I no longer worry about paying rent, I do still have to eat, and expanding my business to New York where so many high-powered people have expressed interest in living legacies feels like a win. I credit Mrs. Arlington for leaving me with that idea of prewriting your life story. (She also left me Diva, a precocious Great Pyrenees puppy who happens to be claustrophobic and terrified of the water — but that’s another story.)
All I need now are a few more dead people to memorialize and I’ll have enough money saved for that New York city move. So why am I writing obituaries? While it might be killing me financially, so far — it’s a living.
About Gerri Lewis
GERRI LEWIS is the author of The Last Word (2024) and Grave Words (June 10, 2025), the first two books in her Deadly Deadlines Mystery series published by Crooked Lane Books. Set in her Hallmark-worthy hometown of Ridgefield, Connecticut, this cozy mystery is about obituary writer Winter Snow, who solves murders along with a cast of lovable characters.
During her career as an award-winning reporter, columnist, and feature writer, Gerri has become a go-to person in her community for obituaries. When she is not helping her protagonist solve mysteries, she writes magazine features and is the Public Information Officer for the Ridgefield Office of Emergency Management. She lives with her husband in Ridgefield, Connecticut, the picture-perfect setting for her books.
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