Confessions of a Deathmaiden - Softcover

Francisco, Ruth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446614394 ISBN 13: 9780446614399

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2004

Synopsis

Francisco scales the heights of suspense with this enthralling first novel about a hospice worker determined to uncover why the young boy under her care died ominously. "Beautifully written . . . as original as it is absorbing."--Michael Connelly.

About this title

About the Author

Ruth Francisco lives in Los Angeles.

From Publishers Weekly

Frances Oliver, the "deathmaiden" of Francisco's captivating if flawed first novel, 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, Tom s, 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 for his organs, this 40-something woman transforms herself into a sleuth to unravel the mystery. Oliver's journey takes her from contemporary L.A. and the unsettling business of organ "recovery" (i.e., harvesting) to the shadowy world of smuggled antiquities and, eventually, deep into the rebel-controlled Mexican mountain village where Tom s was born. Francisco writes with an attractive combination of matter-of-fact authority ("I help people die") and real lyricism, particularly when articulating the fuzzy zone between life and death. But too many convenient coincidences, some awkward foreshadowing and a few overly familiar characters, such as the skeptical but sympathetic policeman and the doctor (named "Faust"!) with a God complex, underline the need next time for a plot more worthy of this highly original and compassionate heroine.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446614394
• ISBN 13: 9780446614399
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 416