finished reading

This is a delightful debut novel and first in a series; I will read more!  I'm not sure how to classify it--it's a blend of cozy paranormal mystery with found family.  And amusing, I even chuckled a couple of times. I hope future installments touch on main character Kathy Valence's backstory, but this introduction was plenty fun.  Kathy's depicted as down-on-her-luck at forty-two, in the process of divorce, yet surprisingly pregnant with her soon-to-be ex-husband's baby.  The secondary characters are charming and quirky.  The audio is very well done.

From the publisher:

Sometimes it takes working with the dead to start living.

Kathy Valence is forty-two, mid-divorce, and pregnant with her ex's baby. She's also a modern-day grim reaper employed by S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences), but frankly that's the easiest part of her life right now. Or at least it was, until her latest client's soul goes missing.

When she finally tracks down seventeen-year-old Conner Ortiz, he angrily denies he died of natural causes, despite what his file says. He insists that someone at S.C.Y.T.H.E. murdered him, and he demands Kathy find out who and why.

Kathy has only forty-five days to figure out what happened to Conner and help him move on before the boy's soul is doomed to roam the Earth as a ghost forever. She’s forced to rely on the help of her retired mentor, her almost ex-husband—and some sneaky moves by Conner himself. This is the wildest case of her career. . .and one wrong move could cost Kathy her job, not to mention her life.