The Wrong Dead Guy

A special agent for a supernatural task force hunts down a runaway mummy bent on raising hell in this adventure by a New York Times–bestselling author.

Coop, a master thief sort of gone legit, save the world from an ancient doomsday device—heroism that earned him a gig working for the Department of Peculiar Science, a fearsome top secret government agency that polices the odd and the strange.

Now Woolrich, Coop’s boss at the DOPS, has Coop breaking into a traveling antiquities show to steal a sarcophagus containing the mummy of a powerful Egyptian wizard named Harkuf.

Coop pulls off the heist without a hitch. And it’s not his fault that when DOPS opened the sarcophagus they didn’t find the mummy they were expecting. Well, it was the right mummy, but it wasn’t exactly dead—and now it’s escaped. Being a typical boss, Woolrich blames his underling for the screw-up and wants Coop to find the missing Harkuf, pronto.

Digging into Harkuf’s history, Coop thinks the mummy is hunting for an ancient magical manuscript that will help bring his old lover back to life. Which wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t a warrior sorceress hell-bent on conquering the world with undead armies.

Coop would very much like to run from the oncoming chaos. It’s one thing to steal a mummy, but another to have to deal with head-hunting bureaucrats, down-on-their-luck fortune tellers, undead mailroom clerks, and a rather unimpressed elephant. Unfortunately, there’s nowhere to run. If Coop wants the madness to stop, he must suck it up and play hero once more. But if he manages to save the world AGAIN, he’s definitely going to want a lot of answers—and a raise.

Praise for The Wrong Dead Guy

“A goofy, flamboyant, and breathless horror adventure by one of the genre’s sharpest creators.” —Kirkus Reviews

“[The Wrong] Dead Guy is a riot. It’s just plain dangerous fun.” —NPR

“[Kadrey’s] plotting is as deft as ever, weaving eight broad story arcs into one overarching narrative that’s entertainingly unpredictable.” —Publishers Weekly