Cleaning up...ghosts

The debut novel by Wendy Roberts, The Remains of the Dead kept me up most of the night. Not complaining, it was my own fault I started it just at bedtime and had to finish it.

Here's the blurb:

Sadie Novak has got the kind of job that kills cocktail chatter dead: She owns Scene-2-Clean, a crime scene cleanup company. And if wiping up after murders weren't spooky enough, she can also see and talk to the ghosts of the victims.

When a grieving relative hires Sadie and her employee, ex-cop Zack Bowman, to clean up after the murder-suicide of Trudy and Grant Toth, Sadie figures she's bound to encounter at least one chatty ghost. But instead she finds herself talking to Kent, a man she meets at the scene who is very much alive - so much so that Sadie agrees to go on a date with him.

When a ghost does appear - the oddly silent Trudy - the spirit seems determined to prove her husband's innocence, and inspires Sadie to track down the real killer. But as Sadie scours the crime scene, she quickly realizes that she's in way over her head, that Kent has a strange connection to the dead couple, and that someone wants her to give up the ghost...for good.

It was one of those mysteries that just cannot put down. Read one chapter and you're hooked, you just have to read until you are done. And that's what I did. It kept me guessing until the bitter end - just an expression. It twisted one way and then the other, and my gosh I had it wrong from the beginning. And then at the end, it surprised me! Not the ending with the crime, but with what happened with Sadie's friend. I was completely floored, I didn't see that one coming. I just don't know what else to say about it without spilling out the secrets of the book...so, I'll zip it.

The Remains of the Dead by Wendy Roberts (4/5) Contemporary Mystery; Paranormal: Ghost; Published: Obsidian (12/2007); Series: # 1, A Ghost Dusters Mystery; New Author; Canadian author; 100 + Reading Challenge(16); Library book;