Blog Tour: The Opposite of Lonely – Doug Johnstone

EVEN DEATH NEEDS COMPANY…

The Skelf women are recovering from the cataclysmic events that nearly claimed their lives. Their funeral-director and privateinvestigation businesses are back on track, and their cases are as perplexing as ever.

Matriarch Dorothy looks into a suspicious fire at a travellers’ site, and takes a grieving, homeless man under her wing. Daughter Jenny is searching for her missing sister-in-law, who disappeared in tragic circumstances, while grand-daughter Hannah is asked to investigate increasingly dangerous conspiracy theorists, who are targeting a retired female astronaut … putting her own life at risk.

With a body lost at sea, funerals for those with no one to mourn them, reports of strange happenings in outer space, a funeral crasher with a painful secret, and a violent attack on one of the family, The Skelfs face their most personal – and perilous – cases yet. Doing things their way may cost them everything…

Doug Johnstone is the author of sixteen novels, many of which have been bestsellers. The Space Between Us was chosen for BBC Two’s Between the Covers, while Black Hearts and The Big Chill were longlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year. Three of his books – A Dark Matter, Breakers and The Jump – have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. Doug has taught creative writing or been writer in residence at universities, schools, writing retreats, festivals, prisons and a funeral home. He’s also been an arts journalist for 25 years. He is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club and lives in Edinburgh with his family.

My thoughts: Skelfs, Skelfs, Skelfs, they’re back!!

OK, so this is one of my favourite series and I get super excited to read each installment. And this one is excellent.

Each Skelf is on a case of their own, and still running the funeral home, which is going green under Indy’s lead. Buying a plot of land for green burials and using a water based process to break down remains.

Dorothy is looking into the arson attack on a local travelling community, is it simply a local who hates them or is there something more sinister going on?

Jenny is still dealing with her ex-husband Craig’s trail of chaos and looking for his sister, who was last seen making off with Craig’s body. Her former mother-in-law is dying and wants to say her farewells.

Finally Hannah has come up against the old adage about never meeting your heroes, when she gets drawn into the lives of a female astronaut and her wife. Indy is a bit worried, and not without reason.

There’s also a potential new employee at the funeral home, some fab gigs for Dorothy’s band, Jenny and Archie’s friend dates, while Schrodinger the cat gets plenty of love from everyone.

It’s another brilliant, funny, clever book about these incredible women and their work. The ghost phone in the garden is proving popular, helping the grieving to deal with their feelings and share what they need to say to their loved ones.

Can’t wait to see what happens to them next, have they finally reached a good place as a family and as a business?

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.