There’s something brewing in the reaper community. Something dangerous. Something sinister. Stanley Morris is a loan shark. A low life. A thief. A con man. A man of questionable ethics and morality. He is also a lover and a fighter. Up until six months ago he was Brooke Graves’ boyfriend. Most of the time. However, for the last six months, Stanley Morris has been in a coma and Brooke has been wracked with confusion and guilt. She didn’t know what to do with her life. She didn’t know how she felt. All she knew was that Stanley Morris was in a coma and that it was her fault. But eventually Brooke came to terms with her decisions, with her life. She was ready to move on. And then Stanley Morris woke up. But he isn’t Stanley Morris anymore. He’s someone different. He’s someone who’s more monster than man and the monster is in control. A war is coming. And before it’s over, the living and the dead won’t ever be the same again.

When you have a bug problem, you call an exterminator. When someone skips out on their bail, you call a bounty hunter. And when a dead soul goes renegade, you call a grim reaper. Avery Graves is your typical type A personality who strives to achieve her best. Her sister, Brooke is…not that. Despite Avery’s best efforts, things aren’t working out as well for them as they are for the other reapers in town and the sisters find themselves a few dead souls short of making the rent. While chasing down a soul bounty that might get them out of their pauper’s grave and into a mausoleum, things take a turn for the worse when the sisters find themselves at odds with the worst thing possible: The living. Because the only thing worse than a dead soul that refuses to move on, is a living soul that refuses to let go.

There are two sets of laws in this world: The Law of the Living and the Law of the Dead. And if the Graves Sisters aren’t careful, they’re going to end up breaking both of them. After Brooke’s boyfriend ends up in a coma after a brutal beating from local gangster, Dicky Ramburg, Brooke finds herself on the hook for finding a centuries old Reaper talisman and delivering it to Ramburg. If she doesn’t deliver, Dicky’s promised that the next person to getting a beating will be her and this time he won’t stop until she’s dead. Before Brooke and Avery have any time to even process what’s happened, things go from bad to worse. Something is amiss at Saint Mercy’s. At first it’s thought to be just an accident, a tired, overworked doctor simply wasn’t paying attention. But then it happens again. And again. And again. Avery and Brooke find themselves trapped in every grim reaper’s nightmare: The dead in Saint Mercy’s aren’t staying dead.

Scarlet Stiletto: The Thirteenth Cut - 2021 features thirteen award-winning stories from the 28th annual Scarlet Stiletto Awards. 'Crime and mystery short stories of startling originality; and a grim warning of what evil lurks in Australian suburbia.' - Kerry Greenwood The Scarlet Stiletto series of eBooks – the First to the Thirteenth Cuts – feature superb collections of spine-chilling crime and mystery short stories, by Australian women writers, curated from 28 years of the Scarlet Stiletto Awards hosted by Sisters in Crime Australia.