Babysitting 101: Don’t turn your back on a Newbie. Especially on Day One.
I rounded a corner and found her, kneeling in front of the burial tomb of a legendary voodoo queen. She stared at the stone slab as if it belonged to her; she was running her fingers through a fresh pile of Mardi Gras beads left by pilgrims seeking favors from the dead, a puzzled expression on her face.
I picked her up, checked her pulse, sheltered her in my arms for a moment while my head cleared. “She’s fine,” I said to myself, as if I needed some sort of reassurance.
But deep down inside I knew that wasn’t true. There was something wrong here, too much information was trying to get through. Almost as if whoever did her jump didn’t know what the hell they were doing.
I was too tired to care about another Newbie whose life just got mangled and torn in Fresh Start machinery. Too tired to realize that there might be more going on here than just a rugged jump.
It was the first mistake I would make on this case. But that didn’t really matter. Because I was about to make plenty more.
ENDORSEMENTS:
“AFTERLIFE is like smoke in the darkness—intriguing and illusive. Merrie Destefano led me on a gritty page-turning journey of life, death and resurrection. I was riveted from the first page to the last and personally can’t wait for her next one.”—Tracey O’Hara, author of Night’s Cold Kiss
“Life, death and AFTERLIFE–a haunting story that seamlessly blends the hard-boiled twists of cyberpunk with the noir flavor of a Southern Gothic thriller. Gritty and compelling, Destefano’s debut tackles the big questions of immortality and faith amidst a labyrinthine web of murder and deceit. Truly high octane stuff, sure to please both fans of science-fiction and mystery.”—Marc Giller, author of Hammerjack
“Merrie Destefano storms the world of urban fantasy with AFTERLIFE, breathing new life into the vast genre of the undead. Gritty, poignant, in the tradition of Bladerunner with the nostalgia of New Orleans. With crisp and beautiful prose, AFTERLIFE blurs the line between the living and the dead to ask life’s ultimate questions–even if they take nine lives to solve.”—Tosca Lee, author of Havah and Demon: A Memoir
“AFTERLIFE is a seamless combination of mystery, science-fiction exploration of a future based on cloned survival after death, and a fantasy struggle for the survival of good in an evil world. Merrie Destefano has made a fine start on a promising career.”—James Gunn, Science Fiction Grand Master, author of The Immortals
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