AustLit

'A Grave Business is a humorous yet somewhat sinister and suspenseful mystery set against the backdrop of the New Orleans French Quarter prior to Hurricane Katrina, with its jazz culture and history of ‘dark’ religions and cemeteries.
Xav and Linc accidentally stumble upon a racket through misdirected emails and coded newspaper messages. Their investigations lead them into the dark world of cults, crypts and midnight escapades. The Neville brothers provide an unwelcome threat to their schemes.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Rudi has inadvertenty and rather naively become Sandbar Council's official dog dropping collector. Starting off by walking and using only plastic bags to ‘collect’ droppings and a sack to hold them Rudi developed a number of improved methods to collect the ‘deposits’. His younger brother (Morris - narrator) is an embarrassed and unwilling helper. Rudi replaces carrying the sack to using a wheelbarrow. He then uses his bike to pull the wheelbarrow. This culminates in an engine driven variation of a garden vacuum attached to his bike to do the collecting. It has disastrous effects on the day he is to receive Student of the Month Award at his school. The backdrop to the events is Clean-Up Australia program, the Tidy Towns award and the school’s involvement in both. The competition for public recognition creates some radical, but unwanted responses, by locals to help Rudi. It also leads to other students embarking on ‘shady’ tactics to win public kudos. To Morris’s distress he unwittingly uncovers this information but is reluctant to acknowledge or expose it out of loyalty (and embarrassment) to his family. The humorous storyline is the dominant feature of the text. The social issues provide a relevant backdrop in a small town setting.

'Although there is a strong element of sibling rivalry the boys are actually supportive of each other even if it is not openly admitted.' (Publication summary)