Death Warmed Over

Today's post is on 'Death Warmed Over' by Kevin J. Anderson. It is published by Kensington Fantasy. It is 296 pages long with an teaser chapter from the next book 'Unnatural Acts' coming out in January of next year bumping up the pages count to 309. The cover art has the main character Dan Shamble with other supernatural creatures like a vampire, a witch, etc. The intended reader is anyone over the age of about 14 or so. Not because of anything in the book but because I do not think that anyone under that age would be able to get most of the references in the book; one needs to have read and watched much to get them. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

Dan Chambeaux was just a normal P.I. trying to make an honest living in a new world. He is the P.I. half of Chambeaux & Deyer Investigations. The Big Uneasy had happened five years before making all the fairy monsters real. Now the world has witches, vampires, ghosts and more. He got his new name about town of 'Shamble' when he was murdered in a back alley and came back. Murders and suicides have the highest chances to come back as either ghosts or zombies. When his girlfriend is murdered Shamble swears to her that he will get her killer. That does not change when she comes back as a ghost or when Shamble is shot in the head. There are many cases that introduce the reader to this very funny world with funny and interesting characters. Like a five thousand year-old mummy named Ramen Ho-Tep to the witches on the cover, yes there are two, but that is important to the story so I will not ruin that for you either.

I have a story about this book. I am a pretty big fan of Mr. Anderson and I have the pleasure of meeting/seeing him at Dragon*Con every year. So last years' D*C he read the first two chapters of this book at his reading. I really enjoyed it. Over the year he talked with his fans on his facebook page about the writing he was doing including Death Warmed Over. Well months past and I am getting excited because it is almost time for D*C again. I come back from a short vacation to the beach to find a package waiting for me. Confused because I had not ordered anything. I see that the return address is from Mr. Anderson. Now I am very confused and a little concerned. I'm thinking on some list somewhere, like a bad list, but I open the package. Inside is an  Advance Reading Copy or ARC of Death Warmed Over. I start screaming and waving my hands and in general looking like an idiot. So that is my story. Mr. Anderson sent me an ARC copy of this book and he personalized it to me. Now the review of the book itself. It is very funny. It has some laugh out loud moments but most of the humor is subtle. It will catch you off guard with it. I do not want to ruin those moments for you but just watch what you are reading because he has surprises for you. It is first person as Shamble but that is part of the humor because he thinks a lot like the reader. The bad guy(s) have soliloquies, the good win in the end and an evil company is made to pay. All in all a fun and fast read.

Rating four and half stars out of five.