BOOK REVIEW | DEATH & OTHER OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS | VERONIKA DAPUNT

 

Today’s review is one that is a little bit different. I recently got this one on Netgally and is one that is out of my comfort zone. It’s a cozy mystery with Death as the main character.

The book is published by Random House on 10th April.

Her job is to die for. Literally.

Most people think that when they meet Death, it’ll be a skeleton in a black potato sack. Maybe with a scythe. Truth is, she’s just a woman doing a job, and she’s very good at it.

But when Death takes a much-needed break to live on earth, things start to go terribly wrong.

Someone’s killing people not on her list (well, not yet anyway) and it's down to her to find the culprit before it’s too late.

To make matters worse, her sanctimonious sister, Life – whom Death hasn’t got on with in millennia – won’t stop blaming her . . . And then there’s the slight problem of the charming (sexy) parasitologist she’s suspicious of.

But she’ll be fine, right?

After all, who better to investigate a murder than Death herself?

Death is fed up! She’s tired of ferrying the souls of the dead to the next stage of the afterlife and she needs a break. After a conversation she has with one of the souls on the ferryboat, she petitions The Boss (otherwise known as God) to let her take a sabbatical here on old planet earth. More specifically London.

Set up in a flat and obtaining a job (all coordinated by Death’s opposite and sister Life), she sets about enjoying her life as a human on the plane of existence known as Earth. However, she soon stumbles on a number of deaths that were not in THE PLAN, set up by him upstairs and this leads her to investigate why this is happening.

She soon finds that the deaths lead her into organised crime which in turn leads her to see that forces from down below (i.e. The Devil) are rampant on earth and are playing some kind of game with the fabric of existence.

To say that this book was totally out of my comfort zone (due to the fact that the dreaded R word – romance – made an appearance) is an understatement. Especially when my usual fodder, as you may know (and the fact that the name gives it away) revolves around either fantastical worlds or people getting ripped to pieces by scary monsters, I actually quite enjoyed this.

What I liked!

I liked this iteration of the grim reaper as a quirky thirty something woman (although my favourite iteration is Death from The Sandman, but that’s the ever present goth in me) and the fish out of water scenarios that come with death on earth and how she copes with them. I enjoyed the mystery surrounding the ‘unplanned deaths’ and how this panned out with Death experiencing love as she investigates the murders.

I also loved the two doggos that are in this book, Cerberus, the little yappy dog of the love interest, with the heart of the lion, and the dog that Death and Life save from the research labs in the story who they call Garm (named after the dog / wolf who guards Hel’s gate in Norse Mythology).

What I didn’t like!

I didn’t like the corporate sounding names that were given to both the Devil and Jesus. I think they were supposed to be funny in a Pratchettesque kind of way, but I found them a) a little bit annoying and b) totally forgettable.

All in all, I really enjoyed this one. It’s not my usual cup of tea, but Veronika Dapunt made the characters likeable and someone who I enjoyed getting involved with for the time I was reading it.