💀 A Dirty Job 🗡️ - By: Christopher Moore (Grim Reaper Series Book I)

Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job, an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death. It’s a dirty job. But hey, somebody’s gotta do it.

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy. A little hapless, somewhat neurotic, sort of a hypochondriac. He’s what’s known as a Beta Male: the kind of fellow who makes his way through life by being careful and constant — you know, the one who’s always there to pick up the pieces when the girl gets dumped by the bigger/taller/stronger Alpha Male.

But Charlie’s been lucky. He owns a building in the heart of San Francisco, and runs a secondhand store with the help of a couple of loyal, if marginally insane, employees. He’s married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. And she, Rachel, is about to have their first child.

Yes, Charlie’s doing okay for a Beta. That is, until the day his daughter, Sophie, is born. Just as Charlie — exhausted from the birth — turns to go home, he sees a strange man in mint-green golf wear at Rachel’s hospital bedside, a man who claims that no one should be able to see him. But see him Charlie does, and from here on out, things get really weird. . . .

People start dropping dead around him, giant ravens perch on his building, and it seems that everywhere he goes, a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Strange names start appearing on his nightstand notepad, and before he knows it, those people end up dead, too. Yup, it seems that Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job, an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death. It’s a dirty job. But hey, somebody’s gotta do it.

📖 A Dirty Job is a novel by American writer Christopher Moore published in 2006. While still full of humor, Moore drew from his own experiences in tending to the needs of close family and friends in the stages of dying. About the Author !!

SF Gate Interview April 10, 2006:
Comic horror author writes of Death's antics in S.F. -- 'A Dirty Job,' but somebody had to do it

“Where has this guy been hiding?” — The New York Times

“Habit-forming zaniness.” — USA Today

“A very sick man, in the very best sense of the word.” — Carl Hiaasen

A Dirty Job is a sad, playful, whimsical, bleak and hopeful novel.
Sort of like life. -Patrick T. Reardon (Pulitzer Prize winning former editor for the Chicago Tribune. Click the link for his more extensive review.)

Moore wrote A Dirty Job to explore the profound questions of life, death, and grieving through a unique and entertaining narrative filled with his characteristic wit and humor.

The book uses darkly humorous and zany elements to address the difficult topic of death, suggesting that humor can be a way to navigate challenging aspects of life.

*** What a treat! I found the entire audio book for part II ***
Grim Reaper Series Book II: Secondhand Souls Excerpt
Secondhand Souls ; Full Audio Book