Second life

by Paul Griner

Second Life takes us into the strange world of the second life of bodies and what happens to the physical vessel after one dies. Elena Kelly is a body broker or "corpse wrangler," one of the best in her field. When she became too ambitious, cut too many corners and too many ethical (and legal) safeguards, she ran afoul of the law and medical profession, triggering a huge scandal in Louisville, Kentucky that quickly went national. She lost everything - and now humbled and on a strict, three-year parole, she works as coroner's assistant in Danville. Elena is still trying to come to grips with her regret and guilt when she is unexpectedly drawn into the search for her former best friend's missing body. Elena knows what can happen to a body that goes 'missing', how it can be salvaged and used indiscriminately for spare parts, and she endeavors to seek salvation in finding Lia and bringing her body home, as complete as possible. Her desperate search drags her back to the underworld of the dead and pits her against a new and nefarious corpse wrangler - one more talented and deadly than she ever was.