The Courteous Killer — Joss Cordero

The second 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 when his bizarre rituals are discovered, the psychopathic Zach no longer has easy access to fresh corpses. Still he knows the spirits of the dead need his help as they transition to the netherworld. Compelled to be the good angel of death, Zach soon transforms his mission to search for new souls to dispatch from earth to a better place. Among those who cross his path are a former female coast guard captain, a feisty real estate broker, and two gangbangers…which one will be his next spirit to set free?

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.