This book cannot be beaten for unbridled creativity. In this book, NRDS, the reader won’t find warmed-over tired plots just rehashed. The stories are unique, as is the book’s premise.

NRDS – National Recently Deceased Services, is about an under-the-radar government agency that deals with ghosts, poltergeists, etc. There are NRDS offices across the country in small towns. This particular branch features characters such as Buck, the old pro; Alexus, the kick ass pain in the ass; River, the drug-addled good time guy; Bob, part of the team as a resident ghost; and others. The thread that hangs the stories together is Ethan, the new hire who naively didn’t bother to read the manual and is learning everything on the fly. Yes, eventually, Ethan does read the manual. Because he's the newbie, he gets all the scut jobs, but we watch him mature and become a full-fledged team member.

Complicating matters are the locals, who have discovered the office and want them run out of town. A candidate for mayor lost a son recently and feels taken advantage of by NRDS. The problem is, his son is a ghost in the local cemetery, with other children who are being wrangled together by a strong ghost teacher, Mable. But everyone knows that ghosts don’t exist, right?

Not all of the stories are funny or even interesting, but most of them are. This book isn’t for children, containing foul language and some naked ghosts at an orgy, but I recommend it to adults who have a sense of humor and would enjoy a book that is slightly risqué. ( )