There are harpies attacking him in alleyways, two hellhounds have taken up residence guarding his daughter, and strange fourteen-inch creatures with squirrel bodies and alligator heads are invading his home. For one, his toddler daughter can kill people with a point of a finger and a single word. He receives a book that explains the whole system, but it becomes clear that the book is misinformed on a few things. At some point a person walks into the store, is strangely drawn to the item and buys it, and thus the soul finds its new home.Ĭharlie has to learn this new trade, which comes with quite a few rules, such as not telling anyone, not talking to any other Death Merchants, and never losing a soul.

Charlie runs a second-hand store, which makes him a good collector of souls, because apparently when a person dies the soul leaps into a nearby item that has sentimental value.

At first he attributes these incidents of death, mayhem, and radioactively-glowing objects to grief and sleeping pills, but he comes to discover he is now a Death Merchant, which is someone who collects souls from the dead. Strange things start happening to Charlie. She dies in the hospital, where Charlie finds a tall, think black man in a mint-green suit standing over her who no one else is able to see. Charlie Asher’s wife Rachel dies shortly after giving birth to their first daughter, Sophie. A Dirty Job, like the books of Jasper Fforde, is pretty hard to describe adequately, but I’ll do my best. Moore writes a unique brand of what I’ll call supernatural humor, somewhat similar to Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett or A. But hey, somebody's gotta do it.īestselling author Christopher Moore now shines his comic light on the undiscovered country we all eventually explore - death and dying - and the results are hilarious, heartwarming, and a hell of a lot of fun.My blogger-friend Alley at What Red Read often recommends Christopher Moore, with good reason. Yup, it seems that Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job, an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death. Strange names start appearing on his nightstand notepad, and before he knows it, those people end up dead, too. It seems that everywhere he goes, a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. But see him Charlie does, and from here on out, things get really weird. Just as Charlie turns to go home, he sees a strange man in mint-green golf wear at his wife's bedside, a man who claims that no one should be able to see him. That is, until the day his daughter, Sophie, is born. He's married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy, and who is about to have their first child.

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy, the kind of fellow who makes his way through life by being careful and constant.

A dirty job novel