Devil May Ride-Wendy Roberts

Devil May Ride
Wendy Roberts
Obsidian, Dec 2008, $6.99
ISBN: 0451225651

Sadie Novak has a very special gift as she sees and is seen by the dead who can’t move on; she helps them make the transition to a higher plane. She owns Scene-2-Clean, a service that cleans locations where death occurred. Her co-worker Zach helps her and is even used to her seeing the dead.

The pair go on a job at a place where a meth lab used to be. Sadie hears a noise like a baby crying. They enter the shed and find a dead eviscerated goat with a baby sticking between it and the wall. An evil female ghost says she was a willing victim who died for her Master who needs her unborn child.

They have another job at the clubhouse where a fierce drug using biker gang used to reside. When they get there, Sadie talks with the dead biker who tells her enough for her to conclude that the woman’ ghost, and her now born child, were his child and significant other. As they clean Sadie finds packed into the wall hundreds of thousands dollars. The bikers assume she took the loot and make plans to regain it after they kill her. Instead of waiting for them to kill her and since she does not have the blood money to return to them, Sadie goes on the offensive while also insuring her pregnant sister remains safe.

This delightful supernatural mystery has an edgy feel to the story line that gives it a sense of being different from the usual whimsical paranormal cozy. Sadie is a strong individual who copes with her paranormal skills while believing her mission is to help the ghosts she meets move on. It is the living evil that she fears more though she will not back down or walk away when they threaten her. Wendy Roberts has a unique writing style as her heroine is hardboiled in her way when it comes to the breathing creeps, but soft boiled when it comes to the ghosts still left behind.

Harriet Klausner