Confessions of a Deathmaiden - Hardcover

Francisco, Ruth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892967730 ISBN 13: 9780892967735

Publisher: Mysterious Press, 2003

Synopsis

'As original as it is absorbing' says Michael Connelly about this first novel of a hospice worker determined to uncover the truth behind the ominous death of a young boy left in her care. When Frances Oliver comes home to find her terminally ill charge,Toms Gomez, being taken away to a hospital by paramedics and a man in a white lab coat inquiring about his heart, she is stunned. After all, his last days were to be spent in her care. As a deathmaiden, Frances' mission is to help people pass into the next reality-just as a baby is ushered into the world by a midwife. But at the hospital, Toms dies under mysterious circumstances-and before his time. Now, with an intricately carved piece of Mayan Jade that belonged toToms in hand, Frances travels to Mexico to find the truth behind her young charge's untimely death.

About this title

About the Author

Ruth Francisco lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

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.

Francisco's Los Angeles-based debut novel combines elements of the crime story with a strong supernatural plot thread. Protagonist Frances Oliver is a trained "death maiden," or someone who helps people let go and move on to the other side. When young Tomas, a terminally ill boy in Frances' care, is suddenly taken by paramedics to a hospital where his organs are harvested, Frances suspects foul play. Convinced that a biotech company is harvesting organs for profit, she follows the trail to Mexico, site of the Institute for Eternal Living, which is investigating her actions and may revoke her license as a death maiden. Francisco's prose is a bit flowery, but it is counteracted by plenty of suspense and a fascinating premise. Jenny McLarin
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Edition details

• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0892967730
• ISBN 13: 9780892967735
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352