Book Review: A Dirty Job

I've started going through the Christopher Moore books. I just finished reading "A Dirty Job".

The book is about Charlie Asher - beta male. The author really harps on about him being a beta male. Charlie's wife just had their first kid. Since Charlie wouldn't stop worrying and fretting they sent him home. Once in the car he decided his wife needed her favorite CD. When he brought it back up he found Death all dressed in green and hanging out in the wife's room. The wife was dead and Charlie wasn't supposed to be able to see Death. Since he could see death Charlie became a Death.

They didn't tell him this right away. Oh no. First he took his daughter home, had the funeral, noticed some names in his scheduler, went back to work in his thrift store, and killed some people. Finally, a book that explains his duties as one of the legion of Deaths gets delivered to the store. The goth girl on staff nabs it and reads it hoping that she's the one who became death.

As a Death it's your job to collect souls. See, not everyone is born with one. When you die or are near death your soul transfers into an object that's important to you. Deaths can tell which ones those are because they glow red. Charlie, like most Deaths, runs a used item store. It can be a thrift store, a pawn shop, a used book or music store... something like that. You put the glowing object on the "one only" shelf and wait for someone to come along. The right person will buy the object meant for them and the soul transfers into that body.

So when a name appears in his scheduler Charlie has only a set amount of time to recover that soul. If they don't then very bad things can happen. In this case a trio of Celtic warrior ... not gods, not witches... supernatural beings ... they eat the soul to become stronger so they can rise up and take over the world. Naturally, that's what they try to do over the course of the book.

Oh, and his daughter can kill people and pets by pointing at them and saying "KITTY!"

Take the Incarnations of Immortality book "On a Pale Horse" and have it written by Discworld author Terry Pratchett and you have this book. I've had lots of Christopher Moore books recommended to me over the years and I'm just now getting around to reading him. Now I'm passing the recommendation on to you.