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Confessions of a Deathmaiden

Name: Confessions of a Deathmaiden
Author: Ruth Francisco
ISBN: 9780892967735

by Ruth Francisco

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Overview

Francisco scales the heights of suspense with this enthralling first novel about a hospice worker determined to uncover why the young boy under her care died ominously. "Beautifully written . . . as original as it is absorbing."—Michael Connelly.

Synopsis

"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.

About the Author, Ruth Francisco

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.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Frances Oliver is a "deathmaiden," one of a society of women trained in the mystical art of leading the dying into the next world. (She also happens to be a six-foot-tall redhead who drives a Jaguar, which leads the reader to infer that deathmaidens are well paid.) Her latest case involves Tomas Gomez, a young man from Mexico; although he is clinically brain dead, Frances supernaturally senses that Tomas is not ready to die and could possibly even recover. She is stunned when she returns from an errand to find Tomas's body being rushed to the hospital for organ donation. Frances investigates this shocking turn of events, her quest taking her from the jungles of Mexico to the big business of biotech organ harvesting. She is kidnapped and tortured. She solves the mystery. But by then we don't care. While this first novel has a serviceable plot and a suitably creepy title, the rest of it is a mess, intermingling turgid prose with pseudo-science and cartoon characters. Robin Cook's Coma is still a better choice.-Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Lib., Hammond, IN Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Debut thriller about a brave young deathmaiden's valiant battle on behalf of anti-xenotransplantation. Say again? Well, it has to do with cross-species transplantation-a medical procedure of which deathmaiden Frances Oliver is not an enthusiast. And what's a deathmaiden? Think of a midwife assisting at a birth, then move 180 degrees. As Frances says: "I help people die." A graduate of the Institute for Eternal Living, she's serving in her professional capacity at the bedside of comatose T-mas Gomez, ten, when a frenzied medical team suddenly snatches him away. Turns out T-mas is an organ donor who's come under the loving scrutiny of the Silvanus Corporation, an evil industrial giant with a vital interest in a potential billion-dollar business in recycled body parts. And young Frances, a Joan of Arc for the new millennium, has Silvanus shaking in its acquisitive boots. Frances detests the kind of entrepreneurial corruption that undermines the dignity of death. Threaten her, terrorize her, you only prepare her for martyrdom and provoke her telling one-liners. When, as prelude to some down-and-dirty torture with electrodes and stuff, the bad guys strip her down to her panties and then beyond, she reacts with the insouciance of 007: "I was particularly fond of that pair." A promising protagonist thwarted by a wooden cast and a draggy plot. Maybe next time.