Book excerpt: "An embalmed dog appears on the Tampa Mayor's stoop along with her Sunday morning Tribune. After minmal examination, the incident is dismissed as the act of an marginally sane activist. However, when the bodies of embalmed senior citizens begin showing up around town, the view of the perpetrator changes substantially. Calling himself The Mortician in notes left with his victims, the killer depicts himself as a mercy killer, driven by overwhelming compassion for his victims. Homicide Detective Rock Paxton and his tough and sassy partner Nan Delcorte are assigned to bring down this killer. Their investigation leads them from a funeral home to stops at a college of mortuary science, a cemetery, and a crematory along the way"--Back cover