“Prepare to be totally taken in by this book . . .a beautifully written and constructed story. It is as original as it is absorbing.” —Michael Connelly“Captivating . . . Francisco writes with an attractive combination of matter-of-fact authority and real lyricism . . . A highly original and compassionate heroine. —Publishers Weekly“Vivid . . .compelling . . .original.” —South Florida Sun-Sentinel“Riveting, challenging and utterly original . . .This mystery novel reads like no other, and it’s striking for both its emotional and its intellectual weight.” —Killer Books, Independent Mystery Booksellers Association“Fascinating . . .plenty of suspense.” —BooklistFrances Oliver practices the arts and skills of a deathmaiden, a compassionate professional who helps ease the passage of the corporeal body to the other world, but only when the spirit is ready to make the journey. Her newest client, Tomas, a young Mexican boy living in Los Angeles, is brain-dead, but before she can apply her skills, the boy dies. Believing he was murdered, and outraged that she has been used as a cover for assassination, Frances transforms herself into a sleuth, vowing to unveil the truth. Her journey takes her from contemporary L.A. and the unsettling business of “organ recovery" to the shadowy world of smuggled antiquities, and eventually deep into the rebel-controlled Mexican mountain village where Tomas was born, a journey fraught with danger and betrayal, which nearly shatters her.While in Mexico, Frances visits the Institute for Eternal Living, where she learned the spiritual arts of a deathmaiden, and comes to learn what they never taught her in school: Instincts can fail you, passions can blind you, and evil can wear the most noble face . . .
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