Kevin Kirk Chronicles

All Kevin wants is to be like any other high school student and learn how to drive and hang out with his friends. But when your parents run a funeral home, it's tough to have a normal life. And when you're a Mormon living in the South, well, that just about triples your weirdness quotient. Especially when an elderly woman from church drafts you into the Granite Girls, a group that records the names on all the tombstones in Armadillo, Arkansas. Try explaining that to the local sheriff who catches you in a graveyard at 6:30 in the morning.   One not-so-weird thing about Kevin's family is the love they have for Marcy-a young African-American woman who's like the sister Kevin never had. Just as the family prepares to help Marcy renovate the house across the road with money left to her by her late father, a stranger shows up at the Paramount Funeral Home. It's Ruby, Marcy's mother, whom she hasn't seen in twelve years. Soon after Ruby's arrival, things begin to disappear-and Ruby makes sure Kevin takes the blame. As her threats become more personal, Kevin must find a way to expose Ruby and to convince others of the truth, not only for Marcy's sake, but to save his own reputation.

It's bad enough that Kevin's mother is about to graduate from mortuary college, but when his parents tell him they're moving to a small town in the Arkansas delta to run the Paramount Funeral Home, Kevin is certain it's his life that's over. After all, normal people don't live in houses with dead bodies downstairs! Once in Armadillo, Arkansas, Kevin tries to adapt to the family business. When he's targeted by the biggest bully in the seventh grade, Kevin begins to "hear" advice from an unlikely source-Cletus McCulley, an old Mormon fisherman and one of his mother's dead customers. Cletus's messages from beyond the grave lead Kevin to uncover not only the bully's secrets, but the truth about a family tragedy that shattered his parents' faith and led them away from God. It's up to Kevin to find the courage to face the bully, and to find a way to help his family heal.