I quite liked the writing style of author Wendy Roberts in this novel, A Grave End. The characters were believable and it felt as if you were part of the story.

This is one of my all-time most favorite series! I think this was the most perfect end to a wonderful cozy mystery series. I can't rave about this book enough!

Wendy Roberts’s fourth Bodies of Evidence mystery finds our heroine and psychic body-finder caught between her past and future, as she has been for the past three books. Without spoiling the series if you’ve yet to read it, heroine Julie Hall uses “dowsing rods” to find missing, deceased people, bringing closure to their families and, more often than not, helping the police solve cold cases. Set in moody-broody Washington state, our Julie is a trailer park gal with supernatural abilities, an up-close-and-personal relationship with beer and wine, and a past as haunting and painful as the murderous circumstances of the bodies she discovers. In each volume, Julie tries to make peace with her abusive past, fend off dipsomania, and draw comfort from a life she’s forged with will power, the wisdom of a great therapist, and the love of her twenty-years-senior FBI-agent boyfriend (I know, but it totally works).

In Grave End, Julie is haunted by a more recent memory, which plagues her throughout her latest case, but is happily resolved in her and Garrett’s favour. To start, she’s called by a con, Roscoe Ebert, to find the body of his murdered wife (even while he sits in prison, convicted of that very murder). Don’t worry there’s sufficient evidence that put him there, but the body may help prove his innocence. Though the case takes Julie back to her rife-with-bad-memories home town of Blaine, she takes it because her memory of Roscoe’s murdered wife recalls her own childhood suffering. If she can bring the family and the lost woman some peace, then maybe she too can put Blaine and its painful memories behind once and for all.

In the meanwhile, thanks to three-books-worth of therapy and love, Roberts hasn’t allowed her heroine to languish in suffering-memories angst. She’s brought Julie quite nicely to have things in her life we couldn’t imagine in the first book: a best friend, a loving, protective, loyal, stalwart man, and even a companion for her big-headed doofus dog, Wookie, in the form of a cutie-pie kitty named Fluffy. Julie is domestic where she was untethered, grounded in love and friendship where she was lonely and cynical. But her struggles with the bottle and self-doubt continue … until Grave End‘s conclusion.

I can’t say I loved Grave End the way I did the previous books. The premise was intriguing enough, but the resolution, the “murderer” reveal, I saw that coming pages and pages away. (The villain is an utter caricature and the portrayal of mental illness is, once again, associated with violent behaviour. Roberts had me shaking my head and muttering, “I wish you hadn’t done that.”) I also miss how incredibly sexy Julie and Garrett are, but Grave End is strictly closed-bedroom-door, which is too bad because Roberts sure can write a love scene.

What I do still love about the series?: how much I care about Julie, her BFF, Tracey, Wookie and Fluffy, and devoted, loving Garrett. Roberts finally brings a hard-won peace for Julie, steering her away from suffering memories and struggles with the bottle, to a place of great change and joy with Garrett, the pets, and a best friend’s love. As for Julie’s psychic dowsing rods, they’re left to dowse another day. I can’t tell whether Roberts is bringing her series to a natural HEA-end, or preparing Julie and Garrett for the next stage of their sleuthing? Either way, I would love to page-meet them again. With Miss Austen, we’d say A Grave End offers “real comfort,” Emma.

Wendy Roberts’s A Grave End is published by Carina Press. It was released on July 15 and may be found at your favourite e-vendor. I received an e-ARC from Carina Press, via Netgalley.

This book was fast paced. Hard to put down. It flowed well and it was very well written. It caught hold of me and had me hooked from the start

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Thriller

This is the continuation of the series where Julie is coming back from a less than great experience using her abilities. However, she’s ready to help someone she once knew and finding her body is how Julie can show her appreciation.

Alice was a woman who shared a secret with Julie. Both were abused as children. But Julie fled the first chance she got and Alice was kind of sucked back in.

When Alice’s husband is convicted of her death, despite the missing body, Julie is asked to help find Alice.

This is a story of friendship, love, betrayal, and redemption. It was a twisting and turning story where Julie is trying to remember a traumatic event and, despite her best efforts, she’s worried she did something unforgivable. But you also have Alice’s family and they are a strange bunch too.

While I enjoyed this story, it wasn’t my favorite of the series. It was much more predictable than the previous books and it just didn’t have the edge that I have come to expect. However, I did still like it and would welcome reading more from this series.

Potential Triggers: Murder, Stalking, mentions of child abuse

I did not realize this was book 4 in a series when I requested it from NetGallery. I feel like I missed out on a lot by not reading the previous books, especially the first book. With that said, I really liked this book and I will be reading the previous 3 books. A Grave End was a very suspenseful and mysterious novel.
The story revolves around Julie, who uses dowsing rods to find bodies. She has many personal issues she is fighting while having an intense need to help others with her unusual ability.
Wendy Roberts writing is very suspenseful and pulls you in.
Thank you to NetGallery, the publisher and author, Wendy Roberts, for the opportunity to read and give my honest review of “A Grave End.”

A Grave End is a very well written suspense. I loved the plot with its many twists and turns. Ms. Roberts never fails to deliver a great book. Suspense fans will not be disappointed. My thanks to the publisher for my advance ebook. This is my unbiased review.

An entertaining paranormal mystery with an intriguing plot and well drawn characters. I've not read a couple of previous books in the series but plan to remedy that soon.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin/Carina Press for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is number 4 in a series. I have not read the others, and felt a little lost. While it can be read as a stand alone, it might be better to read them in order. This has a unique plot. Julie utilizes dowsing rods to locate dead bodies. This is mostly a mystery,with a smidge of romance. When is a recovering alcoholic who needs a sponsor and to.join AS (in my opinion). It's slightly dark as she had a bad childhood. But the sad part is that she is afraid to tell her husband she is pregnant! I rate this 3.5 stars.

In the fourth book in the Bodies of Evidence, Julie Hall is trying to find the body of a women who disappeared in her home town, but left behind enough evidence that she is presumed dead. Just like in the previous books, this story contained an interesting mystery that kept me hooked all the way through. While I'm not completely sure this is the end of the series, I think it really could be, as I felt this book brought the series full circle, being back in the town where Julie spent her childhood and was molded into who she is today, and ended on a satisfying note. Though, I would read another book if one was written!

ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

Another one of those series I cannot explain why I continue to ready, yet I do in hopes they will get better or the main character will become less whiney and damaged.

As families reach out to Julie Hall, in desperate need to find missing loved ones, she must keep her walls up or become overwhelmed by the sheer number of emails and requests she receives. From time to time there are those cases which spark her interest but when they take place in her old home town, a town which holds brutal memories, her first reaction is to delete the request, lock her doors, and hide from the outside world.

There is something about the case of Alice which piques her curiosity and a chance meeting outside of a prison with a psychic, she tentatively combines skills to see if they can come up with a breakthrough for the family. Dead ends after dead ends lead Julie frustrated and exasperated. Her dowsing rods are not picking up on Alice’s remains, until she goes to the one place she swore she would never return to.

Though I had begun to wonder about a specific character in the book, I figured it could not be that easy, why would an author ask so little from her readers, but that is exactly what Wendy Roberts did. Maybe next time she will add in more twists or additional plots to throw us off.

I’ll never understand why this series took off in the way it did when her previous – Ghost Duster Mysteries, and Grounds to Kill just disappeared from the radar.

📚 Series: 4/? but can be read as a standalone.
📚 Genre: Supernatural Mystery.
📚 POV: First.
📚 Cliffhanger: No.

⚠ Content Warnings: Murder. Stalking. Past Alcoholism.

I would have liked this book except for the fact that I now feel like that I'm not one for the paranormal or supernatural genre.

Also, I was not aware that this was the 4th installment when I requested for this book. So, oops. I guess it is my fault that I found it hard to connect with the characters.

On the mystery, I had it all figured out around 30%, so that tarnished the excitement a bit.

Would have loved this, maybe I will revisit this in the future but starting from the first book.

☁ THE CRITERIA ☁

🌻 Blurb:⭐⭐⭐✩✩
🌻 Hero:⭐⭐✩✩✩
🌻 Heroine:⭐⭐⭐✩✩
🌻 Support Characters:⭐⭐✩✩✩
🌻 Writing Style:⭐⭐✩✩✩
🌻 Character Development:⭐⭐✩✩✩
🌻 Mystery:⭐⭐⭐✩✩
🌻 Pacing:⭐⭐✩✩✩
🌻 Ending:⭐⭐⭐✩✩
🌻 Unputdownability:⭐⭐⭐✩✩
🌻 Book Cover:⭐⭐✩✩✩

☁FINAL VERDICT: 2.45/5 ☁

A Grave End is an engaging and fun read. I hope it isn't the last book in the series but with A Grave End as the title it seems likely.

This book shouldn't be read as a stand alone, in my opinion. I don't think you would get as good of idea of who the characters are with just this one book, as you would reading the books from the beginning.

It is difficult to review this book without giving too much away or rehashing the synopsis. I will say that the characters in the book are still well written and likable. There were a few new unlikable characters I could have done without, but without them there wouldn't have been a plot.

The storyline is engaging with a few twists and turns. I can't say I was blindsided by everything that happened but I felt like there was a decent amount of suspense and surprise in the book and I always found it interesting.

I recommend this book and entire series to anyone who enjoys suspense and romance mixed in a book.

A Grave End by Wendy Roberts
Bodies of Evidence #4

Julie Hall is back on the job with her dowsing rods looking for the dead. This time she finds two dead women, a murderer and a psychotic whack job with sites on her. I enjoy reading stories about Julie and the way she finds the dead, am interested in her friend Tracey and love the relationship she has with Garrett. In spite of all she has suffered in her life she is feisty, strong and indomitable. She wants to return the dead to their families and believes in what she is doing. In this book she has had a “lapse” in her sobriety and it is gnawing at her as she wonders what really happened that night. That mystery and a few more are exposed and answers found as she works her way through clues, people and events to find the answers she is searching for.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Do I want to read more books in this series? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Julie's back along with her FBI boyfriend, Garrett, and best friend, Tracey. Julie's current case brings her much closer to her past than she'd prefer, so there's some understandable angst with that. Plus, she has a more recent problem to deal with, but we don't get the whole story on that until close to the end. We don't see as much of the dousing rods as I would've liked in this one, which is where this character truly shines, and the case or cases are pretty easy to figure out. The clues are all there, and some things are almost right in your face, at least on the person or persons involved. The why of one part is a bit out there for anyone to figure out. We do get lots of Tracey, which is a big plus for me since she's one of my favorite characters in the series. I also really like Garrett. He shows way more patience than I would, and he's just one of those characters you can't help but like. We do get more of him than in the last book, but he's still popping in and out. In the end, I still like Tracey and Garrett more than our heroine, but Julie has grown on me. I'm not sure where this series will go from here or if there is even another book planned for these characters, but I will say that I'm happy with how this one concluded. I think it was just about right for these characters.

I am a fan of this author’s from way back, and this series has been more serious than the ones she’s written before. Not a bad thing at all, but a head’s up. This is the fourth book in the series, and I’ve read all of them. I like how these books don’t rely on the supernatural elements to solve the mystery, but more enhances finding the killer with what Julie’s ability is. What I mean is she has to know more about where the killer might have dumped the body so she does some detecting while finding out the place most likely the body will be. I really like Julie’s friend Tracey who keeps Julie from being way too serious and, man, can she be serious. She is so guilt-ridden at times, I am uncomfortable. There was a subplot about her alcoholism that bothered me a little because she was so obsessed, but at the end, I understood more why she was. I just wish she had dealt with it sooner. Anyway, overall I enjoyed this one as much as the rest of the series, and I can’t wait to see how the events at the end shake out in the next one. Recommend this book and was provided the e-book which I voluntarily reviewed.

Julie Hall is ready to go back to work finding bodies that no one else seems to be able to do.

She's been approached to find the body of a woman who was killed years ago, but her body was never found. Her husband is sitting in prison, although he has always proclaimed his innocence.

The hard part comes when Julie must travel back to her hometown where she has no good memories. In fact, she was abused as a child and the thought of being back almost paralyzes her with fear. Her FBI boyfriend is terribly worried about something triggering Julie .. she's a recovering alcoholic, been dry for several months, but he's afraid this will push her over the edge.

She's allowed herself one week to find the victim, but she's getting absolutely no hits. Julie realizes that if the husband didn't kill his wife ... the killer may have Julie is his sights.

This has been an intriguing paranormal series with likeable characters. The suspense that comes with the story of seeking and finding dead bodies is vastly captivating.

I highly recommend reading this series from start to finish.

Many thanks to the author / Carina Press / Netgalley for the advanced digital copy of this paranormal suspense. This review comes voluntarily, unbiased, and entirely my own.

Wendy Roberts is a phenomenal writer and I’ve binge read title I could find. A Grave End was fantastic and I cannot wait for the next book in the series. I’ve become totally attached to the characters and hope there are many more books to come. Thanks to the author and her publisher along with Net Galley for letting me read an advanced copy of A Grave End.

A Grave End by Wendy Roberts
I really like this series it is easy to read and has enough twists that it really keeps my interest. In this installment Julie has to go back to her home town with all her bad memories to try to find a body of a girl she knew back when she was young, throw in a "psychic" Ray who wants to team up with her and join forces, Garrett her FBI man and of course her Bestie Tracey and the fact that Julie is still trying to figure out what happened the night she fell off the wagon and you are set up for one roller-coaster ride! Thank you Netgalley and the Carina Press for this ARC and allowing me to leave my opinion.

I am really enjoying this series. The main character, Julie, is a sympathetic character and as the reader you want her to succeed and overcome her troubled and gruesome upbringing. You really root for her and Garrett. Her need to help other while dealing with a lot of personal issues is commendable. I did not see the twist coming and I was so relieved by the ending. Well done