A Dirty Job
A Novel
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4.6 • 421 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okay—until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death.
It's a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody's gotta do it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cult-hero Moore (The Stupidest Angel) tackles death make that Death in his latest wonderful, whacked-out yarn. For beta male Charlie Asher, proprietor of a shop in San Francisco, life and death meet in a maternity ward recovery room where his wife, Rachel, dies shortly after giving birth. Though security cameras catch nothing, Charlie swears he saw an impossibly tall black man in a mint green suit standing beside Rachel as she died. When objects in his store begin glowing, strangers drop dead before him and man-sized ravens start attacking him, Charlie figures something's up. Along comes Minty Fresh the man in green to enlighten him: turns out Charlie and Minty are Death Merchants, whose job (outlined in the Great Big Book of Death) is to gather up souls before the Forces of Darkness get to them. While Charlie's employees, Lily the Goth girl and Ray the ex-cop, mind the shop, and two enormous hellhounds babysit, Charlie attends to his dangerous soul-collecting duties, building toward a showdown with Death in a Gold Rush era ship buried beneath San Francisco's financial district. If it sounds over the top, that's because it is but Moore's enthusiasm and skill make it convincing, and his affection for the cast of weirdos gives the book an unexpected poignancy.
Customer Reviews
Easy Button
Super funny! I’ve been telling people to pick it up ever since finishing the first chapter!
First Third
…. is well written and thoroughly imaginative. The rest was gingerbread decoration leading to an ending that was understood in the beginning. Well written throughout with many laugh out loud descriptions. Sort of a Carl Hiaasen of fantasy/magical realism.
Humor probably didn’t age well
Before you read, consider that this book was written in 2006 and definitely has the humor of the era. If you can resist clutching your pearls, you’ll be treated to deep belly laughs in every chapter. Filled with death, dogs, d ilfs, and demons.