Confessions of a Deathmaiden »

Ruth Francisco worked in the film industry for fifteen years before selling her first novel "Confessions of a Deathmaiden" to Warner Books in 2003, followed by "Good Morning, Darkness", which was selected by Publishers’ Weekly as one of the best mysteries of the year, and her controversial third novel, "The Secret Memoirs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis". She now has four new novels up on Nook. She is a frequent contributor to "The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine", and currently lives in Florida.

"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, Tomás 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, Tomás dies under mysterious circumstances—and before his time. Now, with an intricately carved piece of Mayan Jade that belonged to Tomás in hand, Frances travels to Mexico to find the truth behind her young charge's untimely death.

Author Biography: Ruth Francisco lives in Los Angeles.

Publishers Weekly

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. (Sept. 24) Forecast: Fans of Michael Connelly, who provides a blurb, will appreciate a setting and style reminiscent of Connelly's Harry Bosch novels. Fans of Margaret Maron, who also endorses the novel, will appreciate the strong and unusual female protagonist. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.