On the HahaFiction shelf
A Dirty Job
Grim Reaper · Book 1 · 2006
Audiobook available · 11 hr 51 min
Charlie Asher has a newborn daughter, a secondhand shop in San Francisco and a wife who has just died. He also has a new responsibility he never applied for: collecting the souls of the dead before darker forces reach them.
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What makes it funny?
Charlie counts twenty-one fingers and toes on his newborn and worries she has a tail. A nurse supplies the facts; Charlie supplies further possibilities. Even reassurance becomes material for another round of panic.
The comedy at work
The supernatural comes with ordinary failures of communication. Charlie’s Goth employee Lily assumes the instruction book for his new job belongs to her, leaving him to face death-merchant duties without the manual.
Try this if…
Macabre fantasy, anxious parenting and eccentric coworkers share space here. The comedy has a coarse streak, but Charlie’s grief gives his ridiculous new responsibilities an emotional weight.
Good to know
Spousal death and bereavement are central from the opening. Expect profanity, sexual references and bathroom humor. This begins the Grim Reaper series.
A few distinguishing details
- A secondhand shop becomes a way station for souls.
- A Goth employee keeps the wrong person’s death manual.
More funny urban fantasy
Sources & further reading
- Fantastic Fiction series record
Book information
- Authorized Chapter One excerpt at AbeBooks
Reading sample
- Indigo paperback record
Book information
- Bookreporter review
Review
- Audiobooks.com unabridged recording
Book information
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