Death Warmed Over

July 9, 2012
Anderson (Night of the Living Trekkies) attempts a satire of urban fantasy but never quite finds solid ground, and a bare and predictable plot undercuts the lazy attempts at humor. Since the Big Uneasy, when supernatural creatures of all sorts were unleashed on the world, private eye Dan “Shamble” Chambeaux has made a living helping them. When Chambeaux is murdered, he comes back as a zombie and continues his job, assisted by his crusading lawyer partner, Robin, and his now ghostly cocktail waitress girlfriend, Sheyenne, murdered shortly before Chambeaux was. Chambeaux protects a vampire from human supremacists, investigates the destruction of a local charity, and seeks his own killer and Sheyenne’s. The concept is sound, but Anderson is generally silly without being funny: characters have names like Jekyll and Edgar Allan, and eternally young vampires make fake “kiddie porn.” Potentially interesting points about prejudice and hypocrisy never take root. The utterly banal ending does the book no favors. Agent: John Silbersack, Trident Media Group.

August 15, 2012
Tireless sci-fi chronicler Anderson (Enemies & Allies, 2009, etc.) creates a day-after-tomorrow world in which a zombie sleuth prowls the mean streets as he works a half-dozen seriously weird cases. Ever since the Big Uneasy, when a 58-year-old virgin accidentally spilled her blood on a copy of the Necronomicon and "caused a fundamental shift in the natural order of things," vampires, werewolves, ghouls, goblins and other undead creatures have been common. One in 75 dead people rises from the grave, like zombie private eye Dan Chambeaux. One in 30 becomes a ghost, like Dan's equally murdered girlfriend, Sheyenne. Together with Dan's still-living partner, Robin Deyer, they juggle a dizzying caseload. Dan, Robin and Sheyenne work to protect vegan vampire Sheldon Fennerman from harassment by the Straight Edgers, who want to keep human nature human. They fight for the emancipation of Ramen Ho-Tep, a long-dead pharaoh whose museum demands he stay put in his glass exhibit case. They search for a way to keep Jackie Dorset's late Uncle Stan from haunting her family. They press Mavis Wannovich's suit against the publisher whose book of spells had a typo that turned her sister, Alma, into a giant sow. And they seek evidence that will allow Miranda Jekyll to break the prenup that prevents her from divorcing her wealthy husband, Harvey, CEO of Jekyll Lifestyle Products and Necroceuticals, on her own terms. Mainly, though, they try to solve Dan and Sheyenne's own murders. Like Alexander McCall Smith's Mma Precious Ramotswe, the sleuths really do settle most of their cases, and they provide a lot of laughs along the way. It's hard to disagree with Dan's verdict: "Never a dull moment."

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August 1, 2012

When the phenomenon known as the Big Uneasy washed over the world, it gave rise to vampires, werewolves, zombies, and other supernatural creatures. Now, zombie private detective Dan "Shamble" Chambeaux tends to some of the more unusual cases in New Orleans's Unnatural Quarter. Along with his human partner, lawyer Robin Deyer, and Sheyenne, his ghost girlfriend, Shamble handles everything from a mummy's complaint against the museum that treats him as property to a pair of witches seeking reparations from a publisher for a botched spell. Most importantly, however, the trio seeks answers to the mystery of who murdered Dan and poisoned Sheyenne. VERDICT Anderson (Dune prequels with Brian Herbert; The Last Days of Krypton) launches an urban fantasy series that is both clever and quirky, with endearing characters and plenty of action. Although this genre shift will surprise Anderson's sf fans, they may enjoy this series opener, which will also attract urban fantasy and mystery aficionados.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
Meet Dan Chambeaux, a private eye who doesn't let being dead stand in the way of solving crimes (including, he hopes, his own murder). The world was a normal place until the Big Uneasy, and now humans live alongside werewolves, vampires, mummies, witches, and zombies. Dan's cases range from the offbeat (witches suing a publisher over a typo) to the potentially groundbreaking (a resurrected Egyptian pharaoh seeking emancipation from a museum) to the strangely moving (the murder of Dan's girlfriend, who now, as a ghost, works as a receptionist at his detective agency). Anderson has a lot of fun with the urban-fantasy, horror, and mystery genres, structuring the novel like a traditional mystery, with Dan building a case against a suspected villain. It would be unfair to reveal the story's big surprise, although fans of the movie Alien Nation will note a certain thematic similarity. Anderson promises more stories about Dan, and if they're as clever as this one, they will be most welcome and continue to reach an audience across genres.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)