The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County

A Novel

By: Claire Swinarski

Narrated by: Alexander Cendese, Alexandra Hunter, Ann Richardson

Armed with a Crock-Pot and a pile of recipes, a grandmother, her granddaughter, and a mysterious young man work to bring a community together in this uplifting novel for readers of The Chicken Sisters.

Esther Larson has been cooking for funerals in the Northwoods of Wisconsin for seventy years. Known locally as the “funeral ladies,” she and her cohort have worked hard to keep the mourners of Ellerie County fed—it is her firm belief that there is very little a warm casserole and a piece of cherry pie can’t fix. But, after falling for an internet scam that puts her home at risk, the proud Larson family matriarch is the one in need of help these days.

Iris, Esther’s whip-smart Gen Z granddaughter, would do anything for her family and her community. As she watches her friends and family move out of their lakeside town onto bigger and better things, Iris wonders why she feels so left behind in the place she is desperate to make her home. But when Cooper Welsh shows up, she finally starts to feel like she’s found the missing piece of her puzzle.

Cooper is dealing with becoming a legal guardian to his younger half-sister after his beloved stepmother dies. While their celebrity-chef father is focused on his booming career and top-ranked television show, Cooper is still hurting from a public tragedy he witnessed last year as a paramedic and finding it hard to cope. With Iris in the gorgeous Ellerie County, though, he hopes he might finally find the home he’s been looking for.

It doesn’t seem like a community cookbook could possibly solve their problems, especially one where casseroles have their own section and cream of chicken soup mix is the most frequently used ingredient. But when you mix the can-do spirit of Midwestern grandmothers with the stubborn hope of a boy raised by food plus a dash of long-awaited forgiveness—things might just turn out okay.

Includes Recipes

hmmm

i’m not a huge fan, but the reference to paula dean was uncalled for.
I felt like this story took a while to get ‘to the story’.
for such an innocent story, the f-bomb was thrown in way more than needed.

Charming and delightful

I loved the characters and the way the author developed them. As a Catholic, I loved all the Catholic references.

Loved it!

Loved this book! such a great storyline. I can totally see this being an amazing movie.

Wonderful delight

This was a very nice listen, brought me back to memories of the ladies in my childhood. Easy listen fast paced.

Not the best book I’ve ever read, but somewhat enjoyable.

I’ve read many novels that I like more than this book but it definitely was an enjoyable enough story for me to get through the whole book. I found myself invested and interested in the characters and how everything would resolve in the story. It’s funny but the book really wasn’t about the funeral ladies as much as one of the funeral ladies family and some visitors to the town. So I would give it a pretty average rating.