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Clean and Floss
Fans of Ghost Busters, Odd Thomas, and X-Files will enjoy this comedic paranormal novel.
Nick Solace is a part-time Washington lobbyist who trades favors in gray areas of the law. As his other job, he cleans and flosses supernatural crime scenes for the Secret Branch of the Smithsonian. Their motto there’s no such thing as monsters. Nick’s corrupt and complacent world is turned upside down when a body dump goes horribly awry. Having the evidence reanimate forces him to call in a debt from Vincent—a musician, janitor, and disgraced missionary.
Robert Cambridge actually vandalized the incredible DaVinci sketch depicted in this story, but my description of the events and people involved is completely fictionalized. This tale unfolded as an answer to the what would possess someone to commit an act like that? As I emphasized the word possess, this became a paranormal adventure.
Nick Solace is a part-time Washington lobbyist who trades favors in gray areas of the law. As his other job, he cleans and flosses supernatural crime scenes for the Secret Branch of the Smithsonian. Their motto there’s no such thing as monsters. Nick’s corrupt and complacent world is turned upside down when a body dump goes horribly awry. Having the evidence reanimate forces him to call in a debt from Vincent—a musician, janitor, and disgraced missionary.
Robert Cambridge actually vandalized the incredible DaVinci sketch depicted in this story, but my description of the events and people involved is completely fictionalized. This tale unfolded as an answer to the what would possess someone to commit an act like that? As I emphasized the word possess, this became a paranormal adventure.
ebook
First published September 14, 2013
4 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Scott Rhine
39 books59 followersScott Rhine wanted to find a job that combined his love of reading with math problem solving, so he studied both short stories and computer languages. As a techno-gypsy, he worked on optimizing some of the fastest and largest supercomputers in the world. A couple of degrees, patents, and children later, at forty-eight, he still didn't know what he wanted to be when he grew up. When his third publication "Doors to Eternity" unexpectedly hit #16 on the Amazon epic fantasy list, he decided to retire from engineering in order to become a full-time author. Humor is a part of every story he writes because people are funny, even when they don't think so. In the real world, something always goes wrong and people have flaws. If you can't laugh at yourself, someone is probably doing it for you. Strong female characters also play a major role in his stories because he's married to a beautiful PhD who can edit, break boards, and use a chainsaw.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 1, 2013
I edited this story; I do not receive any remuneration based upon sales.
A fun horror/urban fantasy set in the same world as Foundation for the Lost and The Redemption of Mata Hari but featuring different characters. If you enjoyed either of those, or if you enjoy fast-paced, high-octane urban fantasy, you should really read this!
A fun horror/urban fantasy set in the same world as Foundation for the Lost and The Redemption of Mata Hari but featuring different characters. If you enjoyed either of those, or if you enjoy fast-paced, high-octane urban fantasy, you should really read this!
August 8, 2017
this was a lot of fun to read.. it had mystery and love and supernatural which is always a fun thing lol.. this one made me laugh in so many spots.. and it made me smile through most of the story. i really enjoy a good story that makes you laugh.. the writing was very good and the characters were likeable and fun. very good story
May 1, 2024
I have issues with this tale...
The whole Cindy/Leslie thing. Vince fell in love with both of them?
Was the London 'interlude' thrown in at 33% because the author couldn't think of another ending? It certainly feels that way.
The whole Cindy/Leslie thing. Vince fell in love with both of them?
Was the London 'interlude' thrown in at 33% because the author couldn't think of another ending? It certainly feels that way.
June 10, 2019
Interesting concept. I think I will look for another.
July 10, 2013
“Clean and Floss” by Scott Rhine is a rather frantic, non-stop paranormal/urban fantasy adventure set in the same Universe as another of Rhine's novels called “Foundation for the Lost”. For those of you who aren’t aware, “Foundation for the Lost” is one of my all-time favourite indie books so I really was looking forward to reading this.
The plot is based around Nick Solace, a main who deals in favours and utilises his skills to help clean up various paranormal messes that the government does not want revealed. However, when one of his cleaning tasks goes wrong and all hell breaks loose he realises that this time he is going to need some help. And so he finds himself pairing up with a young man called Vince who he previously helped out in the past and the two of them attempt to unravel the reasons for the chaos that has been unleashed.
As I implied in my initial paragraph, this is a fast paced, busy and at times rather frantic story that covers multiple events, characters and issues. This type of action-packed fast pacing seems to be typical of Rhine as the previous novels I have read by him tended to be similar. Therefore if you have read his previous novels you will know what to expect. However, I will say that with this novel I found that there was so much involved to the point that it could be a little bit overwhelming and distracting with so much being thrown at the reader.
In addition, there was an element of the plot in which Nick travels to England which felt like a different story to what I read before or after. It was as if Rhine had created a short story regarding Nick and just wanted to cram it into this overall novel via a minor link to the rest of the plot. I will state that I did find it to be an interesting plot line and it was probably one portion of the novel where the pace felt perfect and there was a decent core to follow but in my opinion it just didn’t fit with the overall flow of the novel.
It isn’t all negative however as I still found the story to be entertaining with a good mix of humour, horror and fun. The writing is also clever, descriptive and well executed with some great character lines that had me smiling and laughing throughout. In addition, the characters themselves were all well developed and interesting to follow. Nick specifically was really intriguing with an air of mystery surrounding him that had both the other character’s and my own curiosity piqued.
Overall this was an enjoyable novel despite some of my negative comments in regards to the volume of “things” that Rhine has included. If you are someone that likes vast arrays of layers in their stories and enjoys a fast paced, action packed plots then this novel should really appeal. Personally, I am still happy to recommend it for people looking for a fun paranormal/urban fantasy novel to read but would probably still promote some of Rhine’s other work first.
The plot is based around Nick Solace, a main who deals in favours and utilises his skills to help clean up various paranormal messes that the government does not want revealed. However, when one of his cleaning tasks goes wrong and all hell breaks loose he realises that this time he is going to need some help. And so he finds himself pairing up with a young man called Vince who he previously helped out in the past and the two of them attempt to unravel the reasons for the chaos that has been unleashed.
As I implied in my initial paragraph, this is a fast paced, busy and at times rather frantic story that covers multiple events, characters and issues. This type of action-packed fast pacing seems to be typical of Rhine as the previous novels I have read by him tended to be similar. Therefore if you have read his previous novels you will know what to expect. However, I will say that with this novel I found that there was so much involved to the point that it could be a little bit overwhelming and distracting with so much being thrown at the reader.
In addition, there was an element of the plot in which Nick travels to England which felt like a different story to what I read before or after. It was as if Rhine had created a short story regarding Nick and just wanted to cram it into this overall novel via a minor link to the rest of the plot. I will state that I did find it to be an interesting plot line and it was probably one portion of the novel where the pace felt perfect and there was a decent core to follow but in my opinion it just didn’t fit with the overall flow of the novel.
It isn’t all negative however as I still found the story to be entertaining with a good mix of humour, horror and fun. The writing is also clever, descriptive and well executed with some great character lines that had me smiling and laughing throughout. In addition, the characters themselves were all well developed and interesting to follow. Nick specifically was really intriguing with an air of mystery surrounding him that had both the other character’s and my own curiosity piqued.
Overall this was an enjoyable novel despite some of my negative comments in regards to the volume of “things” that Rhine has included. If you are someone that likes vast arrays of layers in their stories and enjoys a fast paced, action packed plots then this novel should really appeal. Personally, I am still happy to recommend it for people looking for a fun paranormal/urban fantasy novel to read but would probably still promote some of Rhine’s other work first.
March 17, 2013
The story starts in high gear almost immediately with a zombie tunneling through the back seat of a car speeding through the desert, causing the headlights to go out. The main character who starts in control of everything suddenly has no control of anything. In the end, the change does him some good.
People were asking for a sequel to Jezebel, but I kept hearing the wise-cracking Nick Solace in my ear for months. He made me laugh, so I let him out to play for a while--a dangerous thing. My favorite line that sums up the whole group was, "You're going to march in there without a plan, like a bird into a jet engine?" To which the idealist answers, "Even a turkey can take out a jet engine, especially if it's still frozen."
I had fun listening to them talk over dinner or cleanup sites. Nick is so inured to corruption and hiding evidence that he continually amused me. He has to pick just the right song for his iPod while sneaking bodies past the SWAT team. When someone finally does scare Nick, this alone is enough to terrify the rest of the team.
The core of the tale was the London ghost story with a hero running from a job gone wrong. For a novel, I had to go back and plumb that character as well as how things when sideways. To complicate matters, I wanted for the first half for the sidekick to be asking, "Is Nick insane? Is he really the one committing all these crimes?"
I also had two very strong plateaus in mind, the first of which was how three people in the same car react to going off a cliff. The second involves a moral choice that the sidekick has to make: death or betrayal.
Furthermore, for this story, I swore off popular icons from my other stories like super-powered heroes, priests, love stories, pregnant women, and dragons. Instead, I wanted to discuss ordinary people making a difference, paranoia, and how perfectly good people can get discarded by society. Okay, one pregnant woman had a cameo, but she was a zombie-killing machine who tagged along with another character. That's because I also pulled in an unresolved thread from my last two "Ryoku" novels, the Secret Branch of the Smithsonian. I didn't get this from Warehouse 13; rather, I borrowed the conspiracy laden thread from fantasy games I ran for almost 30 years. No one ever bothered to investigate the theft of a moon rock, one of the most valuable substances in the world.
People were asking for a sequel to Jezebel, but I kept hearing the wise-cracking Nick Solace in my ear for months. He made me laugh, so I let him out to play for a while--a dangerous thing. My favorite line that sums up the whole group was, "You're going to march in there without a plan, like a bird into a jet engine?" To which the idealist answers, "Even a turkey can take out a jet engine, especially if it's still frozen."
I had fun listening to them talk over dinner or cleanup sites. Nick is so inured to corruption and hiding evidence that he continually amused me. He has to pick just the right song for his iPod while sneaking bodies past the SWAT team. When someone finally does scare Nick, this alone is enough to terrify the rest of the team.
The core of the tale was the London ghost story with a hero running from a job gone wrong. For a novel, I had to go back and plumb that character as well as how things when sideways. To complicate matters, I wanted for the first half for the sidekick to be asking, "Is Nick insane? Is he really the one committing all these crimes?"
I also had two very strong plateaus in mind, the first of which was how three people in the same car react to going off a cliff. The second involves a moral choice that the sidekick has to make: death or betrayal.
Furthermore, for this story, I swore off popular icons from my other stories like super-powered heroes, priests, love stories, pregnant women, and dragons. Instead, I wanted to discuss ordinary people making a difference, paranoia, and how perfectly good people can get discarded by society. Okay, one pregnant woman had a cameo, but she was a zombie-killing machine who tagged along with another character. That's because I also pulled in an unresolved thread from my last two "Ryoku" novels, the Secret Branch of the Smithsonian. I didn't get this from Warehouse 13; rather, I borrowed the conspiracy laden thread from fantasy games I ran for almost 30 years. No one ever bothered to investigate the theft of a moon rock, one of the most valuable substances in the world.
April 25, 2013
Nick cleans up messes, but not "normal" messes. He is part of a Secret Branch of the Smithsonian that cleans up paranormal messes. You know, monsters of all kinds including zombies. He works hard to keep his cover as a "regular joe schmoe", but people seem to just know there is something about him that makes him different. When Nick is called to go out on a "clean up", things go crazy and all hell breaks loose you may say. Soon Nick finds himself pairing up with Vince, a guy with a rough past and then some, to try and get things under control. Can Nick really clean up this time with so much going wrong? What is there in Nick's own life that may lead to disaster or problems? Will he survive this clean up attempt at all?
I must say, this book was nonstop action of some kind from page one to the last page in the book. There was a lot going on in this book all at the same time, but it never seemed overwhelming or like it was too much to handle and confusing. I enjoyed the fast pace and all of the action and adventure in this book. It truly was a zombie book that had me convinced at the end of it that maybe they are real and I should be looking closer at the people around me. The writing was great, very descriptive, and made me feel like I was part of the Nick's world. The characters were also amazing and very well thought out and developed. I think my favorite character was Nick. He has so much to him and so much mystery surrounding him in order to keep himself safe and keep his secret job. This book was one that was a quick read for me because I found I just couldn't put it down. I read this book in two days and never once felt like I wondered if it would keep moving. This is a new type of paranormal adventure and was well worth the read. Sometimes I felt like I was missing something, like there were other books before this one, but I think it was just part of the wonder of it all. I never felt confused, just like there may be more to some of the situations than I was reading. It didn't hinder the read, but it was something I noticed. All in all though, I would recommend this book to others to read. It is well worth it and full of action that's for sure.
4/5 Stars!
I must say, this book was nonstop action of some kind from page one to the last page in the book. There was a lot going on in this book all at the same time, but it never seemed overwhelming or like it was too much to handle and confusing. I enjoyed the fast pace and all of the action and adventure in this book. It truly was a zombie book that had me convinced at the end of it that maybe they are real and I should be looking closer at the people around me. The writing was great, very descriptive, and made me feel like I was part of the Nick's world. The characters were also amazing and very well thought out and developed. I think my favorite character was Nick. He has so much to him and so much mystery surrounding him in order to keep himself safe and keep his secret job. This book was one that was a quick read for me because I found I just couldn't put it down. I read this book in two days and never once felt like I wondered if it would keep moving. This is a new type of paranormal adventure and was well worth the read. Sometimes I felt like I was missing something, like there were other books before this one, but I think it was just part of the wonder of it all. I never felt confused, just like there may be more to some of the situations than I was reading. It didn't hinder the read, but it was something I noticed. All in all though, I would recommend this book to others to read. It is well worth it and full of action that's for sure.
4/5 Stars!
April 7, 2013
Clean and Floss by Scott Rhine
Nick Solace has an official job, but realistically, he is a dealer in favors. He always knows what people want, so this works out ideally when someone in government needs help or something needs to be cleaned. Need a parking ticket to go away? Nick will find the officer in charge and swap that ticket for concert tickets, or perhaps for a rendezvous with a popular pole dancer…whatever the officer seems to want…Nick is good at finding out what works.
In this case, the book grabs you with the first line, “It all started when the body dump when south.” Nick is called in to clean up a particularly gruesome mess; his forensic pathologist friend is performing autopsies on a new breed of zombie and Nick needs to dispose of the first zombie corpse. And that’s when things start to go wrong.
Clean and Floss is definitely a change from the norm in paranormal reads. It’s a refreshing twist in the genre that is sorely needed. Rhine keeps the action going throughout with well-paced drama, humor, elves, dwarves, murder, mayhem, spirit-snatching, an evil twin, and more. With all that’s going on, you’d think the novel would be overwhelmed, but it most assuredly is not. Rhine writes with a steady hand and clever mind, keeping the reader transfixed from beginning until well past the end.
Unlike other, carbon-copied zombies, his zombies give one pause…are they out there somewhere?
Nick Solace has an official job, but realistically, he is a dealer in favors. He always knows what people want, so this works out ideally when someone in government needs help or something needs to be cleaned. Need a parking ticket to go away? Nick will find the officer in charge and swap that ticket for concert tickets, or perhaps for a rendezvous with a popular pole dancer…whatever the officer seems to want…Nick is good at finding out what works.
In this case, the book grabs you with the first line, “It all started when the body dump when south.” Nick is called in to clean up a particularly gruesome mess; his forensic pathologist friend is performing autopsies on a new breed of zombie and Nick needs to dispose of the first zombie corpse. And that’s when things start to go wrong.
Clean and Floss is definitely a change from the norm in paranormal reads. It’s a refreshing twist in the genre that is sorely needed. Rhine keeps the action going throughout with well-paced drama, humor, elves, dwarves, murder, mayhem, spirit-snatching, an evil twin, and more. With all that’s going on, you’d think the novel would be overwhelmed, but it most assuredly is not. Rhine writes with a steady hand and clever mind, keeping the reader transfixed from beginning until well past the end.
Unlike other, carbon-copied zombies, his zombies give one pause…are they out there somewhere?
March 27, 2013
*I edited this novel.*
I am always happy to get another book by Scott Rhine to read and edit. While I always enjoy Scott's fantastic stories, this zombie book was a pleasant surprise as he stepped away from his normal genre, but without straying too far. As a cross between the supernatural and a new take on zombie horror, the book had Scott's standard insertion of wit and humor, which combined with the story and action sequences to create another very memorable book. I love the concept of this unethical go-to man from Washington being the cover for his government-paid position, a cleaner for the supernatural events the government always denies. The complexity of the main character was such that throughout the novel we continue to learn the depths of his persona, throwing a wrench into the works every step of the way. I very much enjoyed the novel and think fans of The Walking Dead and the show Supernatural will find this to be right up their alley.
Weston Kincade
Author and Editor
I am always happy to get another book by Scott Rhine to read and edit. While I always enjoy Scott's fantastic stories, this zombie book was a pleasant surprise as he stepped away from his normal genre, but without straying too far. As a cross between the supernatural and a new take on zombie horror, the book had Scott's standard insertion of wit and humor, which combined with the story and action sequences to create another very memorable book. I love the concept of this unethical go-to man from Washington being the cover for his government-paid position, a cleaner for the supernatural events the government always denies. The complexity of the main character was such that throughout the novel we continue to learn the depths of his persona, throwing a wrench into the works every step of the way. I very much enjoyed the novel and think fans of The Walking Dead and the show Supernatural will find this to be right up their alley.
Weston Kincade
Author and Editor
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews