Reviewed by Jeanne
Kathy Valance’s father told her she had the Sadim touch. That’s Midas spelled backwards. He meant that everything she touched went bad
and some days Kathy believes he might be right. She had thought things were
looking up. She’d finally found a job
she loved and one she was good at—or had been good at until tonight. As an employee for Secure Collection, Yielding,
and Transportation of Human Essences (S.C.Y.T.H.E.), her job is to collect souls
of the newly deceased and send them on their way before they turn into
ghosts. The problem is that while she
has a body lying on a kitchen floor, the essence of that body is nowhere to be
found.
This is a problem. A big problem.
When she finally tracks him down in a meadow, she finds an
angry teenager named Connor who refuses to leave. He also insists he was murdered.
Murder victims are not Kathy’s department. She’s Natural Causes. And if she can’t get Connor to move on, she’ll
lose her job, the one thing she feels good about in her life. So she has to find
out if Connor was murdered and by who, and she has to do it before he turns
into a ghost and is stuck here permanently.
Oh, and Kathy was in the process of divorcing Simon, the husband
she really loved because she can’t talk about her job AND because she’s afraid
of losing him. As the comedian says, “It makes sense if you don’t think about
it.”
She’s also pregnant by Simon.
Her life can’t possibly get more messed up.
Oh, yes it can.
I found this to be one funny and delightful romp. It as if Elle Cosimano’s Finlay Donovan took
a job as a soul collector. Kathy’s
observations are a delight—a teen’s wispy mustache is “the male equivalent of a
training bra”—and I loved all the characters I was supposed to love. Kathy is a funny, compassionate, and
open-hearted. Simon is no GQ model but
he adores Kathy and is willing to do anything for her. Kathy’s friend Jo is funny, sarcastic, and
resourceful. And Connor—Connor is a
surly teen, angry at being dead, but underneath it all he’s a sweet kid and a
literal lost soul.
There is a second book coming out in a few months, and I’ll be
looking forward to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment