Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Secret Dead Men by Duane Swierczynski - Wait list

Secret Dead Men

by Duane Swierczynski
ebook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 8 weeks
Place a hold Read a sample Read a sample
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 8 weeks
A smart-talking supernatural noir, full of twists and turns, delivered at a whipalong pace about a dead investigative-journalist-turned-soul-collector on the trail of his nemesis – and murderer. Perfect for fans of Ben Aaranovitch and Richard Kadrey.
“Secret Dead Men is the most inventive, uplifting, hilarious, moving novel since Catcher in the Rye” – Ken Bruen
Del Farmer isn’t your ordinary hardboiled private eye. Instead of collecting fingerprints or clues, he collects souls of the recently dead. His latest dead guy, Brad Larsen, might just be the key to destroying Farmer’s long-time nemesis, The Association.
Of course, Farmer is sadly mistaken. An FBI agent unstuck in time is toying with him. A mysterious couple keeps trying to kill him. Another job―a mundane babysitting gig that pays the bills―is threatening to steer him way off course into a violent hell of sexual deceit, fractured identities, and cheap apartment toilets.
With only a head packed full of nagging ghosts, Farmer realises this case might just drive him out of his mind, literally.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 24, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781835410578

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781835410578
      • File size: 2177 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 31, 2005
      Crime fiction doesn't get much weirder than Duane Swierczynski's debut mystery, Secret Dead Men. Deceased detective Del Farmer, who has somehow learned to collect souls (and house them inside himself in a "Brain Hotel" complete with lobby, swimming pool and pub), engages in a postmortem quest to expose the group of gangsters he dubs "the Association." Unfortunately, the muddled execution doesn't measure up to the highly unusual concept. .

    • Kirkus

      September 15, 2024
      A roguish freelance sleuth is a master of disguise in a literally mind-boggling way. Swierczynski's riotous crime novel, first published in 2004, begins typically enough, with a pair of FBI agents poring over the scene of a double homicide in Woody Creek, Illinois, in the mid-1970s. The puckish narrator, Special Agent Kevin Kennedy, even cradles a doughnut and a Styrofoam cup of lukewarm coffee. But the story goes deliriously wonky and never looks back when Kennedy confides in the reader that his real name is Del Farmer and he's a "soul collector." Del stores his stolen souls in his Brain Hotel, a series of "rooms" in his brain. The residents there seem to have settled in comfortably, occasionally offering him assistance. The latest soul belongs to Brad Larsen, one of the two murder victims. Swierczynski pulls off a tricky balancing act. Even as he methodically lays out the rules and details of his offbeat premise, he keeps the plot grounded in the conventions of the crime genre, which require Del to find the killers of Larsen and his wife, Alison. Additionally, Del finds himself a hunted man, runs afoul of a femme fatale, and faces off against The Association, a fiendish criminal enterprise. Swierczynski's brisk pace and light comic touch often resemble vintage Donald Westlake. Many of the funniest bits are tossed-off riffs, as when a ragtag group of souls in one room of his Brain Hotel watch an episode ofThe Bionic Woman. A delicious comic thriller with a science-fiction twist.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading
OverDrive service is made possible by NOBLE member libraries and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.