Helping the Dead — Joss Cordero

The explosive finale in a fast-paced, four-part, serialized psychological thriller -- from a talented author who captures quirky South Florida life in the bestselling tradition of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen.

Zach often hears his great aunt Emmy's hauntingly sweet voice singing in his head, calling him to make the dead look beautiful. But having been fired from his security job at a West Palm funeral home, the psychopathic Zach no longer has easy access to fresh corpses. If only he had been allowed to train as an embalmer, his work with the dead could have been more traditional. His mission has now expanded to dispatch new souls from this earth, and he has done well. Still the one beautiful soul he has longed to “help” continues to elude him -- and his restless nature will not quiet until he lovingly guides her out of this mortal world….

With its taut pacing and sly humor, Cordero's West Palm serialization is relentlessly addictive, peopled with a South Florida psychopath, a burnt out police detective turned P.I., and one gorgeous but tough woman, in a city where trash mingles with class.