Sadie Novak owns an unusual niche business. Scene-2-Clean deals with the messy cleanup after the police and coroner have departed. Due to her own personal experience with a terrible loss, Sadie feels very strongly that no grieving relative should have to clean away the aftermath of a relative's death or murder. With little competition, Sadie's company has only one problem—keeping employees on the job. Evidently nobody ever considered cleaning up after the dead their dream vocation. Luckily for her, hunky ex-cop Zack Bowman hasn't been scared off after about a year on the job.

When Sadie gets the job to clean up a house after a grisly murder-suicide, she's not surprised to find the murdered woman's ghost hanging around. Sadie's been seeing ghosts ever since she started the business and she sees it as part of her job to help them get to the other side. Trudy is at first oddly speechless, but she does eventually communicate with Sadie. Trudy insists that her husband, Grant, did not murder her. But if Trudy is correct, who did kill her? And what about Grant's suicide?

As Sadie begins to poke her nose into the closed case, strange things begin to happen. And when her reputation and her business are put on the line, Sadie will do whatever it takes to prove her innocence and to solve the mystery surrounding the deaths. Will Sadie and Zack uncover the truth before someone makes her a ghost herself?

THE REMAINS OF THE DEAD is a thoroughly enjoyable mystery. Sadie is a smart, likable heroine who just happens to have a knack with ghosts. Squeamish readers should be forewarned that there are some graphic descriptions of crime scenes and human remains, which is consistent with running a crime-scene cleanup business. There's also a real shocker at the end of the book, which will surprise all but the most observant of readers. I am eagerly anticipating Ms. Roberts' next Ghost Dusters mystery.

Book Summary

Sadie Novak has 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 meet at least one ghost. 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 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.