The Grief Shop

Tally Whyte #3

by Vicki Stiefel

When someone breaks into the Chief Medical Examiner's Office and leaves behind the dead body of a girl, homicide grief counselor Tally Whyte must play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with a twisted serial killer who is targeting young children. Original.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

353 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Author also writes under Sanna Brand

Award-winning author Vicki Stiefel now also writes as Sanna Brand, including Regency Romances, THE BOND (Book 1, The Secret Tales), THE DECEPTION, and now, THE SEER. Vicki’s s fantasy romance series, The Made Ones Saga, launched with ALTERED, continued with CHANGED, and climaxed with ASCENDANT.
Vicki continues work on her Afterworld Chronicles and her award-winning mystery/thrillers feature homicide counselor Tally Whyte.
Vicki tapped into her love of knitting to produce Chest of Bone The Knit Collection and co-write 10 Secrets of the LaidBack Knitters.
After running The Writers Studio with her late husband, William G. Tapply, Vicki taught fiction and modern media writing for six years at Clark University.
She grew up in professional theater and planned to become an actress. Instead, she slung hamburgers, managed a scuba shop, and became a college professor. She is a mom to two wonderful humans and a furry pack. Her passions for scuba diving, fly fishing, knitting, and horses pop up in her novels, as do chocolate, bourbon, and lobster. Currently, she's playing with her menagerie while working on THE UNSEEN (as SANNA BRAND) , the fourth book in The Secret Tales.

Reviews

[Jezika · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the first two in this series I about wanted to slap Tally by the end. Her impetuous attitude about running into situations where she just barely manages to escape got downright irritating! She'd rush off without waiting for police escort or a friend and get trapped by bad guy, over and over again! I only finished it because I wanted to find out who the real culprit was. Ack! Still like the character but hopefully the next in the series will be better.

[Liannis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan of character drama as much as the next person, but the continued piling on of drama upon the lead detracted from what should have been the focus of the book, which is the mystery of the Jane Doe left behind.

Psychic dreams don't help matters either.

[Lesli · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book left me wanting answers. Things seemed to happen out of the blue without hints. It did have a good story line.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Odd book. Several threads -- pretty much all depressing -- intertwine, all involving Tally Whyte and her significant others. Resolution of the ultimate mystery not adequately defined, imo.

Also, regarding the audiobook -- almost all of the male voices sound alike. Therefore I do not like this narrator.

[Tomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot line was good, but the action jumped around too much. I didn't care for the main character - kind of lax in the moral department...and it was hard to believe that she really cared for the young girls associated wit the story.

[Sony · Rating 2 out of 5]

So again a book was picked while I was doing something else, so I didn't realize this was part of a series. In my defense, it can be read on its own. The same character is followed Tally, but other than the fact that she is alive, so that's a direct spoiler of the previous books. Other than that it makes very small references to the previous stories, so is good to go.
As a whole, if this was a representation of the series and the author's writing style then it's not for me. I will not continue with the series. This is a DNF. I did get through to the end of the book because I needed to know who did it.

Full review can be found at: https://bunkerofbooks05.wixsite.com/b...

[Josepha Schenker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zu viele verwirrende Unterhandlungen, seltsame Sprünge, und immer und überall schwebt Tally in Lebensgefahr. Zu viel für die Geschichte nicht relevantes Drama.
Die Hauptfigur war mir nicht besonders sympathisch.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened as audiobook. Moved dreadfully slowly. Skimmed.

[Arabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very moving. I cried a bit, because of the references to the Holocaust and the atrocities committed, but that’s not the point of the story. Good mystery, somewhat confusing, and definitely sad.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant crime/mystery story with an interesting premise.

Our main protagonist Tally, works for a fictitious American state Grief Assistance Program. The theory, so sensible one wonders why there is not such a thing, is that there is an organisation of professionals who help and support the family of recently deceased, to cope with the process. I liked this premise a good deal.

This novel deals with a mystery of a child's body appearing mysteriously in the morgue (?), who killed her? Will they kill again? Tally, though neither a detective nor law enforcement of any kind, is the one to pursue the truth and justice for the victim.

While I enjoyed the central theme, the story was a bit too frantic to be brilliant; in addition to the actual mystery, there are romantic complications, work politics complications, here faster mother is in hospital and there may be a mystery there, which also affects the work politics... Too much, too frantic. I gather it is one in a series of 'Tally stories', everything is a series these days it seems. While the fact that it is a # book does not impact much on the central story I think it may be the reason behind the multiple plot lines.

[Dani Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great premise! A place made for helping others grieve and use that intutive part of our minds to help solve crimes. Combine that with the Holocaust, Nazis and child mass murderers and you have a unique and compelling mystery. I very much enjoyed reading this!

[Velma · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick, light summer read. Not really my genre.

Bookcrossing wild release February, 2010 - BCID: 244-7814679

[Geri Ceballos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book if you like mysteries like I do!

[Flsunluvr · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little slow to start but then the story picked up the pace and kept right on going.

[Yvonne Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book a lot.

[Danita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like her writing style and the main character is very relatable in her love for animals and her foster mother. The story has an unforeseen twist at the end. A good read.

[Johnna · Rating 5 out of 5]

outstanding medical examiner's mystery....great characters and story line. Read this title in one sitting....couldn't put it down. 1st time I have read this author but it won't be the last!!