-
Access Our
Best Book Club
Books of 2025!
Summary | Excerpt | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
A Novel
by Amy Mackinnon
Book Reviewed by:Clara Marsh is an undertaker who doesn’t believe in God. Suddenly, her carefully structured life shifts when she discovers a neglected girl desperate for a friend. And when Detective Sullivan starts questioning her again about a body she prepared three years ago, Clara must choose between the existence of loneliness and the perils of binding one’s life to another.
Clara Marsh is an undertaker who doesn’t believe in God. She spends her solitary life among the dead, preparing their last baths and bidding them farewell with a bouquet from her own garden. Her carefully structured life shifts when she discovers a neglected little girl, Trecie, playing in the funeral parlor, desperate for a friend.
It changes even more when Detective Mike Sullivan starts questioning her again about a body she prepared three years ago, an unidentified girl found murdered in a nearby strip of woods. Unclaimed by family, the community christened her Precious Doe. When Clara and Mike learn Trecie may be involved with the same people who killed Precious Doe, Clara must choose between the stead-fast existence of loneliness and the perils of binding one’s life to another.
Tethered is the first book in recent memory that I absolutely could not read fast enough to see how it comes out .... I still can't say whether Tethered should be categorized as a mystery or a literary novel but what I do know is that with her stupendous prose and intricate characterizations MacKinnon has penned a winner...continued
Full Review
(668 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by Donna Chavez).
Clara has such a detached attitude toward the more clinical aspects of her job as undertaker – removing organs, sewing the mouth shut, applying makeup – that her description of these tasks seems no different than a fishmonger discussing the gutting and filleting of salmon. And MacKinnon includes enough subtle hints as to the danger and toxicity of the chemicals used in cadaver preparation that one might pause before considering disposition of one's – or a loved one's -- earthly remains. Additionally, there is the casket to think about and the fact that there may be more bodies to bury in Clara's community cemetery than that plot of hallowed ground can hold. It all leads one to ask, is this really the best and most ...
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked Tethered, try these:
by Kate Alice Marshall
Published 2024
Kate Alice Marshall's What Lies in the Woods is a thrilling novel about friendship, secrets, betrayal, and lies - and having the courage to face the past.
Murder at the 42nd Street Library
by Con Lehane
Published 2016
Murder at the 42nd Street Library opens with a murder in a second floor office of the iconic, beaux-arts flagship of the New York Public Library. Ray Ambler, the curator of the library's crime fiction collection, joins forces with NYPD homicide detective Mike Cosgrove in hopes of bringing a murderer to justice.
.gif)
When men are not regretting that life is so short, they are doing something to kill time.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Forgive Me
Haunting, thrilling, and beautifully drawn, Tethered is a novel full of heart. Love, and the search for love, fuels MacKinnon’s cast of characters. Settle somewhere comfortable: you’ll be reading all night.
