"Last Call" (in the anthology MORTIS OPERANDI). by 'Nathan Burgoine

Amazon.com

Powell's Books

I'm going to keep doing stories from Mortis Operandi for the next few days until the Goodreads giveaway closes. Click said link for a chance to win a copy of the book - today is the last day to enter.

Murder is messy.

That's one thing that's often put on display in most murder stories (be they movies or T.V. shows or novels or what-have-you). Something you rarely read about, however, are the people who come in and clean up after. Well, the next tale in Mortis Operandi is about a team of crime scene cleaners, so get your mop and bucket ready...

"Immaculate," by Christine Rains

I loved the notion behind this story - a crime scene cleaning company is brought in to handle a very ugly murder scene - which seems to be defying gravity and remaining on the ceiling the way it should have remained on the floor. The main character, Simone, is a woman who once worked with the police in a paranormal capacity, but now her job is clean up the gore and move on. Except this time, the cause of the gore might not let her.

Simone is a solid character, and the unfolding of what happened to move her from working with the police to working with the clean-up crew is just as intriguing as the mystery of the murder itself. Again, this story left me wondering if there were more tales in this world.