Teaser Tuesday/First Chapter First Paragraph - Lady of Ashes

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jenn at Books and Beat. To play along, just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!
• Share the title and author, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers! 

I just got started reading this book, and I think it will be a good one. It promises a murder mystery of some kind, and the profession of the heroine is unusual - she is an undertaker! In the first chapter alone, I learned all manner of things about mourning customs in Victorian London just as part of the narrative! The book opens with a diary entry prologue by an unknown person, and it looks like bits of the diary entries appear at intervals throughout. Who is the writer? Does this make you want to keep reading and find out? I plan to!

Violet and Graham were, of course, not invited to such an occasion. Their business was with the dead, not frolicking with the living.

~Lady of Ashes by Christine Trent, page 32

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First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is a weekly link-up hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or two) of a book you're reading, or thinking about reading. 

PROLOGUE

   I killed a man today, and although I didn't mean to do it, I must confess that it wasn't unpleasant at all.

   I suppose some might call it murder, but is it really murder if the victim deserved it? If he was especially irritating?

   Unfortunately, most societies frown upon this thing called murder, so I suppose I shall have to reinvent myself. Again. If only one could declare the deceased an obnoxious bore or an unrepentant fool and be done with it, there wouldn't be quite so much fuss.

   Fuss should be left to the undertakers, who sweep in with their tall hats swathed in black crape and nod solemnly at the family as they charge their exorbitant fees for the funereal spectacles that people love.

Here's the blurb:

Only a woman with an iron backbone could succeed as an undertaker in Victorian London, but Violet Morgan takes great pride in her trade. While her husband, Graham, is preoccupied with elevating their station in society, Violet is cultivating a sterling reputation for Morgan Undertaking. She is empathetic, well-versed in funeral fashions, and comfortable with death's role in life-- until its chilling rattle comes knocking on her own front door.

Violet's peculiar but happy life soon begins to unravel as Graham becomes obsessed with his own demons and all but abandons her as he plans a vengeful scheme. And the solace she's always found in her work evaporates like a departing soul when she suspects that some of the deceased she's dressed have been murdered. When Graham's plotting leads to his disappearance, Violet takes full control of the business and is commissioned for an undertaking of royal proportions. But she's certain there's a killer lurking in the London fog, and the next funeral may be her own.

Equal parts courage, compassion, and intrigue, Christine Trent tells an unrestrained tale of love and loss in the rigidly decorous world of Victorian society.

What do you think? Would you continue reading?

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