Mr Joel Schiller

The Inheritance of Death: a Comedy Mystery Mr Joel Schiller

Publisher Marketing: Jeff Young a Hollywood agent, age forty, for the past seventeen years has been living in Hollywood. He enjoyed tap dancing lessons in the seventies as did many young people at that time. It was the end of the Fred Astaire era and he like others thought they could dance their way to fame and success, but it didn't happen. He then decided he might be able to help other young people with their careers. He ended up a typical Hollywood agent with little success. Jeff's inherits his Uncle's funeral home which includes the residence. It seems like a great deal, but there's a catch. In order to inherit a tidy sum and the lucrative income of the business he must manage the funeral home for one year, or he gets nothing. At first Jeff rejects the inheritance since it provokes bad memories of his father's death. When his newest client, a young teen star, overdoses during a party in his office he jumps on the offer, broke and afraid of being linked to her death. Jeff starts his new venture in managing the mortuary completely unprepared. From anonymous tips of necrophilia among his staff to attempts on his life, trafficking in the dead turns out to be trickier than he imagined. A prime suspect, Emmet Royce, his assistant, burned to discover he did not inherit the funeral home, takes out his anger on Jeff. During Jeff's adventures in the mortuary he meets Kate, an attractive widow. Together they attempt to figure out who is trying to murder Jeff and whether there's any truth to the necrophilia. Jeff must fend off murder and rescue a missing corpse.