The Last Responder

Mortician Frankie Grace is in a dying business. After fifty years of conducting funerals as sacred rituals, he's realizing that funerals no longer have the reverence they deserve. Death, the ultimate inconvenience, gets penciled in between Pilates and a mani-pedi. Burdened by the weight of closing the eyes of family, friends, and neighbors--and unsure of his own worth--he finds himself in a downward spiral, unable to help others with their grief, unable to face his own.

Then Johnny Paradise and Tim Collins show up like a pair of bad habits you can't quit. Johnny's got charm to burn and a soft spot for old-school rules--right up until he breaks them. Tim's a born hustler who can turn a "minor favor" into a federal case before dessert. They drag Frankie out of the funeral home and into their bright, loud world of restaurant chaos and kitchen-table schemes, where the problems are still deadly serious but served with espresso and punchlines.

Inadvertently, they may have rekindled dreams and ambitions long buried in Frankie. Caught between the ghosts he carries and the culture that's moved on without him, he'll have to decide what's left: sell out or find a reason--however ridiculous--to stay. In a world where even death has rebranded, Frankie Grace is about to learn that the last responder might be the one who needs rescuing.