A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer

DEBUT Kathy Valence is 42, mid-divorce, and six months pregnant. She feels her life is a mess, except for her job with S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences), where she’s a soul-collection agent. As a nondescript middle-aged woman, she’s deemed perfect for collecting souls to help them move on to the next stage. Souls have 45 days to move on, or they’re doomed to remain as ghosts on Earth. But Kathy’s latest case, 17-year-old Conner, is a problem. Conner is supposed to have died from a seizure, but when Kathy tracks down his soul, his essence, he insists someone from S.C.Y.T.H.E. murdered him. Now Kathy, who’s feeling lonely and whose marriage dissolved in part because of her low self-esteem, is forced to ask for help. She gathers together Conner, Simon (Kathy’s ex-husband), and a retired coworker, Jo. Together the small band will hunt down a killer within S.C.Y.T.H.E. despite danger, break-ins, and threats. Kathy is determined to help the angry teen she’s learned to love.