It took me a while to get into My Father Always Finds Corpses, but once I got to know the characters, I was hooked. The father/daughter sleuthing duo is fresh and exciting, and now I'm fully invested in their dynamic. The mystery unfolds at a steady pace, and while the start was a bit slow, the payoff is worth it. I'm excited to see where this quirky investigative team goes next! 3.5

Thank you NetGalley and Tantor Audio for the opportunity to listen to this title in exchange for my opinion.

My Father Always Finds Corpses is a delightful jaunt, with a murder mystery to solve.

Definitely a light mystery, which is a great palette cleanser between some more intense books. There are great comedic moments, tied in with an entertaining mystery that resolves succinctly by the end.

Jarrod’s daughter Liv agrees to meet her birth mother to help her boyfriend’s filmmaking enterprise. But Zel takes things forward upsetting Liv who decides enough is enough. She goes to tell h8m but finds him dead. What has happened, why and who is responsible? Jarrod who has solved mysteries before so begins investigating. Things do of course get complicated.

Well written and well narrated novel (I listened to the audiobook). Good characters in this well paced, murder mystery. Family relationships will come under scrutiny and others will be in danger before the truth is uncovered.

3.5 stars

This was an easy, casual read which is a nice relief if you’ve been reading heavier books.

I read/listened to this novel in one sitting. There are likeable characters, enough things happening in this book to keep you entertained + is set up nicely to keep you guessing as to who did the crime, but also so much wholesome content in this book. The development of the relationship between the two main characters was beautiful and believable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read!

Thank you to RB Media + Tantor Audio for this ARC via NetGalley.

This quirky mystery had a fun premise and a light, easygoing tone, but it didn’t fully hook me the way I’d hoped. The father-daughter dynamic added charm, and there were some entertaining moments throughout. However, the plot felt a bit predictable, and the pacing dragged in places.

The audiobook narration was solid—clear and pleasant—but it wasn’t enough to elevate the overall story for me. It’s a decent listen if you’re in the mood for something cozy and not too intense, but it didn’t leave a lasting impression.

Enjoyable enough, but not a standout in the mystery genre.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lee Hollis, and Tantor Audio for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

Jarrod Jarvis is just trying to stage a play in Palm Springs without falling apart. It’s not his first play — he’s wrangled actors and staged disasters before — but it’s still a cocktail of performance anxiety, clashing egos, and the quiet terror that no one’s going to clap for the right reasons. He’s a former child star with a beloved catchphrase and what feels like it should be a back catalog of trauma — though honestly, he seems suspiciously well-adjusted for someone who nearly trips over a corpse.

Behind the jokes and mid-rehearsal snark, Jarrod’s still dragging around the grief of losing Charlie — his husband, Liv’s dad — ten years ago. It was the kind of loss that cracked the whole house in half, and neither of them ever figured out how to rebuild the walls without stepping on each other’s nerves.

Enter Liv — his daughter, fresh out of her criminal justice program and deeply allergic to drama, which is a problem, because her boyfriend Zel is drama. He’s filming a documentary about Liv’s surrogate mother. She’s hesitant. She asks him to wait. So of course, he ignores her, ambushes her with a surprise reunion, and films the whole thing. Without her consent. For “authenticity.” She’s furious. She goes to confront him. Instead, she finds him dead. And now she’s in shock, grieving, and standing in a crime scene that flipped her entire life upside down.

Jarrod rushes to the rescue — not flailing like a clueless theater dad, but slipping into crime-scene calm like it’s just another Tuesday. Liv’s rattled. And not just by the body — by the realization that her dad might be weirdly good at solving crimes.

And as if a murder wasn’t enough, Liv finds out she has a half-brother and half-sister through her surrogate mother, Candy. They’re suspicious. Defensive. Possibly dangerous. One of them shows up uninvited and immediately gives “I’ve definitely Googled how to frame someone.” The other’s dating a biker with the emotional intelligence of a cinder block. Liv’s entire identity is crumbling, and somewhere in this tangled mess of genetics, grief, and broken trust is a motive for murder.

The suspect pool is a Palm Springs fever dream. A Russian film professor who might be directing his own alibi. A maybe-gay Secret Service agent who flirts like it’s classified. Kitty, a former First Lady who throws celebrity parties and meddles like it’s her second career. Along with a sprinkling of their own family members — including a literal professional wrestler, because apparently this murder investigation doubles as a deleted scene from "Clue: Smackdown Edition".

But this isn’t just about murder. It’s about Jarrod and Liv — two people fumbling toward each other through grief, guilt, and the kind of awkward emotional truths that only show up when someone dies. Charlie’s death blew a hole in their lives so wide you could park a grief bus in it, but instead of leaning on each other, they just... sidestepped the crater. Liv grew up watching her dad perform pain like it was blocking rehearsal. Jarrod lost his husband and short-circuited every emotional outlet he had left. And now? A brand-new body on the floor means they’ve got no choice but to open doors they locked a decade ago — and hope they still remember how to talk without setting each other on fire.

The audiobook? Unreasonably good. Matt Godfrey gives Jarrod just the right amount of tired sparkle and accidental wisdom, and makes Kitty sound like she’s been sipping martinis since Reagan left office. Every performance hits. Every voice feels lived-in. You’ll be hearing Jarrod in your head every time someone says the word “rehearsal.”

Four stars. Not because the mystery is shocking (it’s not), but because it knows what it is — a smart, stylish story about complicated people solving chaos with snark, grief, and just enough heart to make you feel it. If this turns into a series? I’ll preorder every single one. I’m emotionally invested and increasingly unwell about it.

Whodunity Award: For Solving a Murder While Emotionally Rebuilding Your Adult Daughter Relationship in Between Theater Rehearsals and Gym Gossip

Huge thanks to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for the early access to the audiobook— and for handing me a theater dad with a flair for crime scenes, emotional repression, and just enough sparkle to ruin my expectations for all future amateur sleuths.

I love cozy mysteries because they tend to come in a light, yet fast pace, with a dash of humour in the prose that keep you feeling joyful despite the murder mystery. Personally, I found this story to take a bit of a slower pace than I expected. The death takes a while to occur, and while there were twisty parts that kept it interesting in the meanwhile that kept me from complaining in the lead up to the murder, I'd say the pace maintained the same throughout.

The book is nice, and I enjoyed the plot. It delivered with twists, a diverse set of characters, complicated dynamics and drama. However, I find that it didn't quite stand out that much from other mysteries I've previously read. I felt like it missed a sense of quirky or whimsy I tend to look for in cozy mysteries, and it felt more like a 'light mystery'.
I was expecting the father-daughter duo to be more in focus, yet Liv almost felt like a side-character at times and I didn't feel like I could connect to the character in the same way I could with Jarrod.

Although I didn't quite get the "edge of my seat" feeling while reading, I did find joy in the pages while I went through them, so I'd still tell lovers of cozy mysteries to check this story out.

Meet Jarrod and Liv. Father and daughter. Jarrod is a former child star and still mourning the lose of his husband after 10 years. Liv is currently dating a guy that is a filmmaker and he’s trying to convince Liv to do a documentary about finding and meeting her surrogate mother. Talk about your family drama! Well it definitely takes a turn when after meeting her surrogate mother, Liv is basically accosted by her half siblings and then her boyfriend ends up dead. Did her half siblings kill him? Maybe it was one of his fellow students? Or someone else close to Liv?

This was an intriguing start to a new series. I’ve really loved Lee Hollis’s other books but this one did fall a little flat. It took way too long to get to the mystery for me. Some of the characters were annoying. Got tired of Jarrod’s friends trying to push him into dating after he’s telling them he’s not ready. And I got frustrated with Liv for not seeing all of the red flags with her boyfriend. I was also slightly confused at one point when some of the characters mentioned Jarrod’s habit of coming across dead bodies before and solving murders in the past. Made me think there was something I was missing. Overall a decent book. We shall see if I continue with this series.

Thank you to NetGalley for this audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review!

This was absurd—but not in the clever, fun, cozy mystery kind of way. The plot felt disjointed and overly silly, with twists that seemed random rather than quirky. Sometimes absurd works; this time, it just didn’t.

Good start to a new series (?) I enjoyed getting to know Jarrod and his daughter, Liv, but was a little confused in the beginning with the number of characters that are thrown at you. They are well-fleshed out as the series goes on and it becomes much easier to keep them straight. The mystery itself is well=paced and I enjoyed the other storylines involving Liv’s surrogate mom and Jarrod’s dipping his toe in the dating pool after the loss of a spouse. Looking forward to more in this series (it seems like there will be more based on the ending, fingers crossed).

Narration was excellent, no issues.

'My Father Always Finds Corpses' is a cozy mystery with a big dose of family drama.

The mystery, first of all, had many twists and turns and I enjoyed the little quantities of glamour and Hollywood. There was a lot of action as well. However, it took the story some time to introduce the mystery. Hence, the family drama was more enhanced, and it was enjoyable and had many sweet and heartwarming as well as sad moments.

Also, the characters were unique and funny, but I would have liked more of the daughter's voice.

Finally, the audiobook was well narrated and produced.

**The review is shared on GoodReads and Storygraph**

I love my cozy mysteries and this does not disappoint.

Jarrod (former child actor) and Liz (criminal justice student) are father and daughter and they've grown apart since the death of Jarrod's husband, Charlie. Neither knows why, they just don't connect anymore.

Until they find the body. Then they're determined to work together to figure out what really happened, even if it implicates the people they love.

This is just sweet and told in a lighthearted way. The back and forth between Jarrod and Liz is excellent and you can feel the parent/child bond, both frustrating and loving, between the two.

The story moves along at a decent pace and the narrator, Matt Godfrey, really does bring these characters to life.

I really liked this mystery story featuring an aging actor who lost his husband over 10 years ago but still hasn't entered the dating pool. His daughter and his brother are equally featured. I enjoyed hearing all the kind of hushed voices I think fall behind most Hollywood issues. I also like the way the author dealt with LGBT issues with grace and respect. Especially refreshing in this current political climate. I want to thank the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for giving me an e-copy of this book, in return for an honest review.

I didn’t know I love murder mystery until this author. this is my first Lee Hollis book and I’m intrigued to look into Lee Hollis backlist because the audio for this book was amazing. kept me intrigued since chapter 1.

Jarrod and his daughter Liv are both still grieving the loss of Charlie, Jarrod's husband. While Jarrod is busy with his new theatre production, Liv has begun dating Zel, an aspiring film-maker, who wants to do a documentary about Liv and her parentage and surrogate mother. Later on, when Zel is found dead in his studio, Jarrod and Liv team up to try and figure out who killed Zel. The narrator did a fantastic job with all of the characters in this cozy. I will say, I was not impressed with this, overall. I did not care for the main characters. Jarrod went on and on about Charlie, and Liv was so easily manipulated by Zel. I do not like weak women characters, so I was glad Zel was the murder victim, even though the murder didn't occur until about a third of the way through the book. I have read other Lee Hollis books and really enjoyed them, this is the first time I have liked the secondary characters more than the main characters. Kitty, Maude, and Brody were great!

Jarrod Jarvis is former child star, still recovering from the loss of his husband Charlie a decade or so earlier while trying to revive his career and reconnect with his daughter Liv. When Liv stumbles upon her boyfriend's corpse and calls her father for help, he rushes, deciding to help her when she suspects murder, relying on his own past experiences with solving murders.

Definitely an entertaining, quick read; while the mystery itself might be quite predictable and definitely not anything ground-breaking, the great cast of character, good humour and the fun dynamics make up for it. It's such an easy story to get lost in, and the writing is incredibly engaging. There are many characters, but it's not confusing and they're all very distinctive and easy to follow. I am definitely interested in reading more, and I defenitely will keep coming back as the series progresses.

I got to listen to the audiobook for this, and it was really enjoyable. I think the narrator did great bringing each character to life, and making the story even more engaging.