Nearly Dearly Departed Club

Meet The Nearly Dearly Departed Club. Four random strangers thrown together with only one thing in common. They're all dead. Or maybe not … When teenager Benji Hammerton goes worryingly quiet, his parents turn to the one person who might be able to help - Agatha Pleasant, an ageing government agent who operates largely in the shadows. As luck would have it, Agatha has a batch of new recruits at her disposal. Untapped potential desperately in need of work experience. Her Nearly Dearly Departed Club. Their search takes them to Stainmouth, a bleak town with little to offer except bitter winds and a toxic atmosphere. With a life hanging in the balance, they hunt tirelessly for the missing boy. As tensions mount, and the risks start to outweigh the rewards, the team question their involvement. Their purpose. Their future. Is any of it really worth dying for? Especially when you're dead already… The Nearly Dearly Departed Club is the first instalment in the unputdowanble crime thriller series from Anthony Grace.

For better or worse, the Nearly Dearly Departed Club are back ... and this time it's a matter of life and death. Or rather, stay alive long enough to protect the dead. That's the plan, at least. But then what do they say about best laid plans? There's been a death at HM Prison Stainmouth. The corpse in question is one Impetus Stokes, criminal mastermind, found dead in his cell from an overdose. For no obvious reason, Agatha Pleasant's team of squabbling misfits are assigned the task of collecting his coffin, sitting on it for a few days before handing it over to the necessary authorities. It makes no sense whatsoever, but then why break the habit of a lifetime? Besides, how hard can it be to watch over a coffin? Very hard, as it happens. Practically impossible. Especially when the dead refuse to stay dead. Something that the Nearly Dearly Departed Club are only too aware of themselves.

Cole Burroughs is a man on the edge. On the edge of what exactly nobody is entirely sure, but with the threat of violence inevitable, and lives on the line, good sense dictates that he should be kept under surveillance at all times. With police resources at a barrel-scraping low, that unenviable task falls into the lap of Agatha Pleasant and her shadowy squad of indiscriminate nobodies. Also known as her Nearly Dearly Departed Club. The problems don't just start and end with Cole Burroughs, though. Mercy Mee is still missing in action for fear of a life behind bars, whilst Rose Carrington-Finch has got herself a new boyfriend whom Agatha seems wary of. So, that's two men that need to be watched. Two men who could easily rock the already shaky foundations of The Nearly Dearly Departed Club to its very core. Take a breath and hold on tight, because chances are not everyone will get out of this alive ...