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The Remains of the Dead: A Ghost Dusters Mystery Paperback – December 4, 2007

by Wendy Roberts (Author)

4.4 185 ratings

Book 1 of 5: GHOST DUSTERS MYSTERY

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The first book in a new paranormal mystery series featuring Sadie Novak, a professional crime scene cleaner and amateur medium.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Signet (December 4, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0451222687
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0451222688
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 0.75 x 4 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,193,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #35,554 in Cozy Mysteries (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 185 ratings

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Wendy Roberts

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Wendy Roberts is an armchair sleuth, fan of all things mysterious but a huge chicken at heart. Her mind is often in the secretive, cloak and dagger world of intrigue while her physical presence is usually at home or on the road in her camper van. Wendy resides in Vancouver, Canada where she happily writes about murder and is always at work on her next novel.

You can find Wendy on the web on the following sites:

Website: www.wendyroberts.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/authorwendy

Instagram: @wendyroberts_author

Facebook: www.facebook.com/WendyRobertsAuthor

TikTok: @wendyroberts_author

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

185 global ratings

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kazza

Adding it to my list of favorites!

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2009

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Wendy Roberts is a breath of fresh air in a normally "fluffy" genre. Sadie Novak has a killer of a job; she mops up after gruesome scenes of death. Add to that the fact that the dead frequently communicate with her and you have a great formula for the first novel in "Ghost Dusters" series.

Read other reviews for the plot, but I have to say that the author is quite imaginative and her writing style lends itself to very easy, entertaining reading. I love the little oddities about Sadie that make her quite a likeable character. Her quirky family's tragic past makes her a very strong personality, yet she is quite vulnerable in her search for a love and balance in her strange line of work. And having known several people with "house rabbits" for pets, I find her housemate Hairy a welcome addition rather than an unplausible fixture, as another reviewer suggested.

All in all, I loved this first round and look forward to the next. I highly recommend it to anyone digging the paranormal mystery genre. It's time well-spent!

Helpful

Beth D

Thank Goodness There's Someone To Do This Job

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2008

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Sadie Novak, former teacher has started her own business. Scene-2-clean, a cleaning company that specializes in cleaning up death scenes. After the tragic suicide of her brother Brian, Sadie found the tragic truth was after, murder, suicides and other death, the police don't clean up the mess and it usually falls to the family.

She wanted to prevent other families from having to deal with the horror of this job after the death of a loved one. Being the only company in Seattle that deals with this type of cleaning and being recommended by the police has made her company a success.

The only problem for Sadie is that along with cleaning up, she has also discovered that she had the ability to see and speak with the dead. Many of them not able to leave as they still are unaware that they're dead. Sadie isn't too pleased with this part, but does get a good feeling when she is able to help the spirit pass on. Unfortunately, suicides do not appear to her and that is her one regret, that she couldn't ask her brother why he committed suicide and it has haunted her for the last five years.

During what she considered a normal cleanup at the murder-suicide house of Grant and Trudy Toth, Sadie is surprised when the murdered wife appears to let her know that her husband did not kill her. Unfortunately, Sadie had helped Trudy leave a little too soon and the woman disappears before she could tell her who the real killer was.

With her ex-cop, employee Zack, as backup, Sadie is determined to right this wrong, especially when someone tries to scare her off by shooting at her and by trying to make it appear she is stealing valuables from the homes she's cleaning.

Will she be able to convince the police that Grant did not murder his wife before someone silences her for good?

Highlights:

Sadie, who turned the tragedy of her brother's suicide into a business that helps other people. I had never thought about this before, who did clean up after a crime. Sadie is very smart and does real investigation into solving this crime as the police have the perfect scenario for murder-suicide and don't see any reason to change it.

Zack, ex-cop, who had taken a bullet for his partner, got hooked on painkillers and resigned before they could ask for his badge after roughing up a suspect. He kicked his painkiller habit but had found it hard to get a job until Sadie came along. Very nice guy, ready to back up Sadie with advice and his gun. Not too thrilled about her talking to dead people he can't see while they're cleaning.

Pam - her best friend - special ed teacher who has helped her through her worst times.

Maeva - The psychic her sister Dawn drags her too. Maeva can talk to the dead who have already crossed over, but she has a little trouble convincing Sadie of that, even though she has a message from Grant Toth, who obviously doesn't want everyone thinking her murdered his wife either.

Sadie and Zack cleaning up a store that sells sex toys, with a son who's more worried that he can't open the next day than the fact that his father had been murdered in a robbery the night before.

Hairy - her pet rabbit who sleeps with his own little stuffed rabbit.

Good mystery, although the killer is obvious long before Sadie figures it out.

This book is able to walk that very fine line between being able to bring humor to a subject that could easily have gone off into bad taste.

The ending - the last 2-3 pages brought tears to my eyes.

Lowlights:

The killer: As if often the case in first books, the author doesn't quite have that magic touch to hide who the killer is. As they try to lay the clues so that the ending makes sense, they haven't yet got that ability to confuse the clues enough that the real killer isn't so obvious.

For a book that I was hesitant to read, I found it to be well-written, enjoyable, humorous, without going into sick humor and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

82 people found this helpful

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Jennifer Wardrip

Better than the Ghostbusters

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2009

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I'm so mad at myself for not reading THE REMAINS OF THE DEAD sooner! It's been sitting in my to-be-read pile for months, and I'm so sad I missed out all this time! Once I started reading I couldn't stop, and read this one in the course of a day.

Sadie Novak, owner of Scene-2-Clean (a business that cleans up after violent or unattended deaths), has the ability to see ghosts. Usually, she's quite happy to help them "cross over" to the other side. But while dealing with a clean-up after a horrible murder-suicide, Sadie suddenly finds herself embroiled in a mystery.

Things quickly spiral out of control - she's accused of theft, the tires of her company van are slashed, she's even shot at - and Sadie realizes that she's going to have to work hard to clear her name, and the reputation of her business.

This is such a great read! I love cozy mysteries, and this one, with its added paranormal element, is just so good! I loved the supporting characters, especially Zack and Madame Maevra, and hope to see more of them in the next book, which I'm starting later today.

If you like a good mystery with a dab of the paranormal (there's even a twist at the end of the book that I didn't see coming!), then definitely invest in picking up a copy of THE REMAINS OF THE DEAD!

Helpful

Karin

I still read it as all of these are good and I had read it so long ago

Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2015

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I've read this before... so be careful, it's not new. I bought it thinking it was a newer book in the series that I might have missed. I still read it as all of these are good and I had read it so long ago, it was still a good way to pass time. For some reason, Amazon didn't catch that I had already ordered this a few years ago. But, nonetheless, if you haven't read this series... this is a very creative and plausible look at a paranormal situation, which you may or may not find plausible in the first place. If you like stories with a paranormal twist, this series is very good and well written.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer

Such a great read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2021

Verified Purchase

I scored this book. It's twisty enough to keep me guessing, the characters are interesting and it enthralled me enough I was surprised when it ended.

Really enjoyable, wonderfully matter of fact about a supernatural thriller. So good I'm now really the whole series.

Flo

The Remains of the Dead

Reviewed in Canada on February 10, 2012

Verified Purchase

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's about a woman, Sadie, who owns and runs a company that cleans up after accidents, suicides and murders. She is also capable of seeing the dead and they try to communicate with her, sometimes how and sometimes who might have been involved in their demise. If you enjoy a mystery with a twist, you'll love this. She also has an assistant, an ex-cop, and there are definite undertones of chemistry between the two of them. I would definitely look for the next in the series, if there is one.

C. Nadeau

A let down.

Reviewed in Canada on September 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

I thought that all the great reviews promised me a fantastic read. It was not the case. The story was interesting but I knew who did it maybe 20% in the book. I also found the characters missing depth. Almost all emotions from Zach were anger, anger and anger. No sympathies for the guy. And the girl was no better. Also I found that the scenes did not flow well from one to another. I won't buy other books from this series.

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