In the heart of modern-day L.A., Frances Oliver practices the arts and skills of the deathmaiden. Four years of intensive training at the Institute for Eternal Living and membership in the Society of Deathmaidens have well prepared her for the role. But the woman who knows so much about helping the dying cross over is about to discover just how little she knows about life ... when someone uses her - and all she stands for - to commit cold-blooded murder.He is only a little boy, a Mexican child by the name of Tomas Gomez. Left in a persistent vegetative state by massive head trauma, he has been sent home from Abbot Kinney Medical Center to die. Yet from the moment she touches him, Frances senses that Tomas is not brain-dead at all, but only too frightened of something or someone to wake up.Elated at the possibility of bringing him out of his coma, she briefly leaves his bedside. It is a lapse in judgement that will haunt her for the rest of her life. For when Frances returns, she bears witness to Tomas's final breath. And then, before she can even begin to get over the shock of losing him, a frantic doctor and his medics descend upon Tomas's small body and spirit it away.As a deathmaiden, Frances saw into the boy's future. She knew that it wasn't his time to die. Who would kill an innocent child and why? Filled with rage and aching regret, Frances vows to uncover the truth. It will be a shattering journey fraught with danger and betrayal that will take her from the sterile corridors of a state-of-the-art biogenetics lab to the dense jungles of Mexico and back. There she will learn what they never taught her in school: Instincts can fail you, passions can blind you, and evil can wear the most noble face. Read Less