Rating: 4.5/5

Genre: YA Mystery/Historical Fiction

Recommended Age: 14+ (sexual references, violence, gore, suicide trigger warning)

Pages: 488

Author Website

Amazon Link

Disclaimer: None, I got this on my own accord!

Synopsis: Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo secretly dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly.
Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. Charles Montfort accidentally shot himself while cleaning his revolver. One of New York City’s wealthiest men, he owned a newspaper and was partner in a massive shipping firm, and Jo knows he was far too smart to clean a loaded gun.
The more Jo uncovers about her father’s death, the more her suspicions grow. There are too many secrets. And they all seem to be buried in plain sight. Then she meets Eddie—a young, brash, infuriatingly handsome reporter at her father’s newspaper—and it becomes all too clear how much she stands to lose if she keeps searching for the truth. Only now it might be too late to stop.
The past never stays buried forever. Life is dirtier than Jo Montfort could ever have imagined, and the truth is the dirtiest part of all.

Funny story about this book: I was on my book crawl for my husband and mine’s first wedding anniversary and I saw this book in a small book store. I saw the cover and grabbed it, not even reading what the book was about. What was I thinking when I grabbed it? “Hmmm…. graves is in the title… a hand reaching up from the ground… looks dark and eerie… MUST BE ABOUT ZOMBIES!” Imagine my disappointment when this book did not include zombies. BUT this book was absolutely wonderful in its own accord. The characters were developed and engaging, the plot was well developed and intriguing, and the pacing wasn’t slow like it usually is in mystery books. This swiftly became one of my favorite mysteries over 6 hours it took me to read it. This book was also a favorite historical fiction of mine. The book spends a lot of time narrating what life looks like from Jo’s perspective and while it can be trivial and a bit boring to some, I found it quite fascinating to learn about life from her point of view and then what life looked like for others in different social and class circles.

However, I did think that the book focused a lot on Jo’s personal struggles and not a lot on the mystery itself. When the conclusion came it was bittersweet in that we didn’t get the full trial. It’s like those law and order episodes that either all focus in the courtroom or all focus on the police work and crime. I like both aspects and to have one missing is a little bit of a bummer for me. The writing is also a little bit weird. The first paragraph or two of each chapter either focuses on a flashback or sets the stage for Jo retelling the audience what happened prior. There’s no page breaks or italics to offset this from the rest of the novel, so it’s a bit weird to recognize that as a reader.

Verdict: If you like your mysteries historical and your main characters Victorian, then you’ll love this book!