“The Remains of the Dead” by Wendy Roberts – Mystery Book Review
Monday, May 26th, 2008I went to the library yesterday to get a few books to read, eight actually. Yes, I’m an optimist. I found a great paperback, "The Remains of the Dead, A Ghost Busters Mystery " by Wendy Roberts and wonder of wonders, it’s the first in a series! Usually I find a good book but it’s the middle of the series and I never can find out why Ophelia and Chad broke up or what happened to Doc Harley’s chicken and, of course, I can NEVER find the first book in the series so it all makes sense!
But I digress. The protagonist of "Remains" is Sadie Novak and she owns and runs, "Scene-to-Clean," in Seattle. Yes, she cleans up crime scenes, really, really terrible crime scenes. Believe or not, this is a humorous mystery. The beginning of this book finds Sadie and her employee, Zack, a disgraced former police officer, cleaning the scene of a murder-suicide. As if that weren’t interesting enough – Sadie sees dead people. Never suicides, only murder victims. When she started her business it used to freak her out, but now she finds satisfaction in helping them to move to the other side. Most of them don’t know they’re dead until she tells them.
When Sadie encounters the murder victim at this scene, she realizes that something is not right and decides to investigate on her own. She meets an attractive new man, visits a psychic and tries to stop her younger sister’s marriage. There are many plot twists and lots of description of the crime scenes Sadie and Zack clean up, so if you’re squeamish, this might not be the book for you. But if you are squeamish – what the heck are you doing reading mysteries?
I can only see good things coming for Sadie, Zack and Scene-2-Clean and know this will be a successful series. Do look for this book at your local bookstore or library or get it on amazon. It’s a winner.
The Remains of the Dead, by Wendy Roberts, Obsidian Press, 2007
