Graveyard Secrets Series Catch-Up

Perfect for readers who love

• Grumpy sexy protective heroes
• Witty banter
• Quirky ensemble casts
• Rom coms with a side of murder
• Found family
• Humorous mystery series
• Paranormal mysteries with ghosts
• Amateur sleuth mysteries
• Long-running character-driven mystery series
• Small town murder mysteries

Readers who enjoy the humor and eccentric characters of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels, the paranormal mystery elements of Angie Fox’s Southern Ghost Hunter Mysteries, and the small-town chaos of Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune Mysteries may enjoy the Cadaver Lab series.

Tropes & content tags

Genre: romantic comedy, small-town romance, mystery romance, light paranormal

Tropes: grumpy sunshine, found family, action & adventure

Content tags: ghostly sidekick, amateur sleuths, bookstore mystery, quirky side characters you want to be friends with, a small town you want to live in, all the bickering and banter, feel good read, low angst, bingeable series, laugh out loud funny books to read in a weekend, cozy fall small town romance, cute grumpy sunshine romance, Gilmore Girls with ghosts, darkly comic, paranormal, romantic, mystery-driven, a blend of paranormal cozy mystery, romantic comedy (rom-com), and small-town ensemble fiction.

Quick facts

Heat tier	Swoony closed door
POV	Single third-person (heroine’s POV)
Tense	Third-person past
Setting / Time Period	Upstate New York small town; Contemporary
Series	Graveyard Secrets Book 5
Read order	Standalone in a series
Length	Full-length novel
Formats	Ebook, paperback
Language	English
HEA	Yes — established committed couple, no cheating
Status	PREORDER. Releasing Sep 29, 2026

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Unedited Ch 1 Excerpt

Despite the opinion of much of the Mudville community, Natalie Chase wasn’t delusional. 

She knew that a naturally introverted, sometimes socially awkward, more plain Jane than femme fatale woman such as herself landing a man like Liam was pure luck. A fluke, at best.

However, as much as she didn’t want to complain about her tall, dark and handsome, brilliant boyfriend, he was far from perfect.

Former Army medic, current doctor and researcher, Doctor William Walsh was sometimes grumpy, often distracted and, when deep in his research, chronically late… such as tonight.

Which was why Natalie was, admittedly, stomping her way across the uneven ground and deadly train tracks between her apartment in the back of Once Upon a Vine Books & Wine and Liam’s research lab. Braving the chill of the autumn air and the darkness of October’s increasingly early sundown because he hadn’t answered her texts or her calls. All to remind her amazing, annoying, amazingly annoying, boyfriend they had a social obligation tonight. And if he didn’t hurry up they were going to be late. Very late.

She reached the door of the lab and punched in the key code. 

As the lock beeped once and the green light illuminated, she flung the door wide.

She swept the lab with a gaze and landed on exactly the scene she’d expected—Liam along with the reason he was completely ignoring her. 

Her competition for Liam’s attention was laid out bare on the metal table. Naked. Exposed. Not even covered by a sheet. 

And there was Liam, rapt. Close enough for a lover’s kiss as he leaned low. Not over another woman. Oh, no. Natalie’s nemesis tonight was worse. 

It was a fresh brain, because Liam’s mistress was research. 

“Ah ha! I knew it,” she accused, hands on her hips.

Liam straightened and turned to frown at her. A familiar dazed expression clouded his ocean-colored eyes. 

“What?” he asked, like a man who’d been startled awake from a deep sleep.

“You’re supposed to be over at my place right now so we can walk over to the Rotary meeting together.”

He visibly deflated, making his six-foot-plus frame shrink, as if that would get him out of doing something she knew he didn’t want to do. For a hulk of a man—and boy oh boy, was he all man—Liam could be very childlike sometimes. Like now with his pouting about having to go to this meeting.

“Liam. You promised.”

One dark brow lifted. “No, Natalie. I believe you promised on my behalf.”

Two could play at this game. 

She lifted a brow of her own. “Fine. If you don’t want the opportunity to present the importance of your research to a group that includes Mansion Bob, the local philanthropist whose foundation gives away one million dollars a year, I’m sure he can donate his money to someone else’s project.”

“With the way you and Harper keep calling the gentleman in question Mansion Bob, I’m pretty sure my chances for securing a research grant from his foundation are nil anyway.”

Natalie matched Liam’s scowl. “We would never say it to his face. And don’t change the subject.”

“I didn’t think I was…changing the subject,” he countered like a man who lived and died by the facts. Just the facts.

“Can you please just change your clothes so we can go?” Natalie begged. 

She wasn’t a bastion of punctuality herself, but still, she hated walking into things late in this town. It was sure to earn her more than a few dirty looks from the locals.

“Change?” Liam glanced down at his outfit. 

He wore pretty much the usual. The man had one look, with minimal variation. Jeans or khaki pants with a black Human Institute logo shirt, sized just small enough to show off the muscles that had helped win her heart…and a few other body parts.

“Why would I change?” he continued, looking perplexed.

She cringed and tried not to let her gaze stray to the disgusting organ on the table. “You’ve been handling brains in that outfit.”

Liam leveled a stare on her. “And you’ve been handling dusty books and dirty money in your outfit. So what? You didn’t change.”

He had her there. 

Didn’t it figure? The one and only thing he’d actually paid attention to today of all days, the momentous day of the arrival of a fresh brain, would be the outfit she’d put on for work this morning.

She sighed. “You’re right. Don’t change. It’ll take too long anyway. Harper’s supposed to speak first but we should still be there by now. So let’s just go.”

Glancing down at himself again, he shook his head. “No. You’re right. I should change out of jeans and put on a fresh shirt if I’m going to be meeting Mansion Bob.”

Now he listened to her? She should have kept her mouth shut and they’d be out the door already.

“Don’t take too long,” she called in the direction of the room he kept as a bedroom for when he slept in the lab.

“I’m not the one who takes forever to change,” he called back.

Left alone in the working area of the lab, she looked around. It was a bit more pleasant in there since Liam had started requesting just brains for research rather than full cadavers. Much less crowded. A bit less disturbing.

Natalie.

She spun at the sound of her name, low, in a ghostly-sounding whisper.

Turning, she saw there was no one visible. “Gabe?” she asked.

Na-ta-lie.

The hushed murmur came again, this time drawing her name out. Long. Spooky. Ominous…

She pivoted to take in all three hundred and sixty degrees of her surroundings. 

Liam was still in the bedroom, too far to be the whisperer. She could hear him opening and closing the metal lab storage cabinet where, acting like the former military man he was, he kept his limited wardrobe neatly folded and regimentally stacked on shelves rather than in a real closet.

What’s wrong, Natalie?

Getting angry at the unidentified voice’s question, she planted a hand on her hip. “Gabe, stop it this instant. This isn’t funny.”

Then you should leave.

A chill ran up her spine at the eery command.

GRAVEYARD SECRETS SERIES

ABOUT THE SERIES: A ghost-seeing bookstore owner and her grumpy cadaver-lab-doctor boyfriend solve murders in a tiny town where everyone knows your business—even the dead.

Book 1 Cadaver Lab: A romantic comedy… with corpses

Book 2 Cadaver Lab: Ghostly Hearts & Body Parts

Book 3 Cadaver Lab: Spirited Shenanigans

Book 4 Cadaver Lab: Grave’s Anatomy

Book 5 Cadaver Lab: Mind Over Murder