My three star rating is for the interesting portrayal of the Spanish Flu epidemic and the impact that it had on a Philadelphia family. The thoughtful research into this period of history and the author’s use of a funeral home as front seat perspective for this plague made for a generally solid story, but there were some huge clunkers in this book that made me roll my eyes more than once and reduce my rating. For me, the story scope should have remained focused on the family’s experience with the flu. We didn’t need the clunky romances with the barely fleshed out suitors, one stolen from the storyline of “The Best Years of Our Lives” and the other from “Jane Eyre”. We definitely didn’t need the unbelievable coincidence in the asylum, and the fourteen year old in the speakeasy was too much of a distraction. The Spanish Flu itself lent enough intensity to make this novel readable and memorable. As it is, I’m glad to be done with it.