Dead To Me | Anton Strout | Fun First Novel

Dead To Me | Anton Strout | Quirky Fun Urban Fantasy (B Grade)

books:

Dead To Me

	Dead To Me Anton Strout Ace, 2008 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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A new urban fantasy featuring a man working on the right side of law-with talents that come from left field. Psychometry-the power to touch an object and divine information about its history-has meant a life of petty crime for Simon Canderous, but now he's gone over to the good side. At New York's underfunded and (mostly) secret Department of Extraordinary Affairs, he's learning about red tape, office politics, and the basics of paranormal investigation. But it's not the paperwork that has him breathless. After Simon spills his coffee on (okay, through) the ghost of a beautiful woman- who doesn't know she's dead-he and his mentor plan to find her killers. But Simon's not prepared for the nefarious plot that unfolds before him, involving politically correct cultists, a large wooden fish, a homicidal bookcase, and the forces of Darkness, which kind of have a crush on him.

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Fun First Novel

Dead to Me is a light urban fantasy about Simon Canderous, psychometric newbie in New York City's secret Department of Extraordinary Affairs. Simon meets (and develops a bit of a crush on) a beautiful ghost, which leads him into a mystery involving cultists, a wooden fish, a killer bookcase, zombies, and all sorts of fun.

In case you can't tell, this is a book that doesn't take itself too seriously. Turning to a random page gives this line: "All undead are subject to a $10.00 cleaning fee after using the Reference Room." If you follow Strout's blog, you know he's an entertaining person, and that comes through in the book. Simon's a likeable fellow, a former petty thief trying to make good while wading through the (somewhat exaggerated ... but only somewhat) bureaucracy of government agencies. If there's a problem with this one, it's that the humor keeps me from taking the stakes as seriously as I might have. Balancing humor and conflict is hard. In this case, I think the humor keeps the tension from rising as high as it might have otherwise.

I think one of the most powerful aspects of the book was the way Strout examined the effects of Simon's power on his personal life. Psychometry means Simon can touch an object and see into the minds of those who have owned or used that object ... which tends to play havoc with relationships, among other things. The use of his power leaves him with a blood sugar crash, so we go through a lot of Life Savers in this book. (Side note -- the night I started reading the book, I had just come back from karate where my own blood sugar dipped low (stupid diabetes), and was replenished by half a roll of Life Savers. So I had a lot of sympathy for poor Simon.)

All in all, it's a fun book and a good first novel. I'm always up for more fun SF/F, and I'll be curious to see what happens to Simon in book number two.

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Quirky Fun Urban Fantasy (B Grade)

Dead To Me is the first book in a series about Simon Canderous, a twenty-four year old psychometrist, living in New York City and working for the secret Department of Extraordinary Affairs. What's a psychometrist you ask? Well, psychometry is the ability to touch an object that someone owns and find out things about them, such as memories or a certain time in their lives when they owned the object. Poor Simon hates having this ability because anything he touches with his bare hands, will allow him to know a person's deepest and darkest secrets. It makes dating quite an uncomfortable thing for him.
Simon used to work as a petty thief and is now on the side of good even though his underpaying job can hardly pay the bills. Plus, he comes in contact with all types of creatures. This includes ghosts who will turn part of your hair white if you tangle with them, thus being welcomed into the "White Stripes" group. Simon calls them the Hair Club For Men. His older partner, Connor, is part of this elite group of hair men because of his latest ghostly investigation. Simon and Connor take up a case after Simon drops his coffee through a ghost named Irene. And since they can't just have her floating around scaring people, they decide to find out who killed her. From there, Simon falls into all types of scrapes from being chased by killer bookshelves and evil cultists. He has to make sure he keeps his job and not touch anything that could possibly drain him to the point of passing out.
Since I am so use to reading about the female protagonist's point of view, it was nice for a change to read about the male's POV. Dead To Me is very quirky and Simon is such a funny and loveable guy. I wanted to give Simon a big hug because he is such a fish out of water, barely making ends meet while trying to stay alive as the things that go bump in the night try to do him in. This is a straight up Urban Fantasy with many pop culture references (Simon has a leather duster that reminds him of the one worn by Angel in the old TV series Angel) and I found myself chuckling a few times.
There is some subtle moments of a possible romance to come and since Anton has been contracted for three more books in this series, I would love to see what else he has in store for Simon.
Anton Strout is definitely a writer to keep your eye on and I really enjoyed the paranormal world of New York City and the character of Simon.

Katiebabs

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C, It Was Okay.

I like to read sci-fi/romance/suspense novels that are witty, make you think, or totally let you escape.

This barely did that, although it had potential. There was a little cheese, but I don't feel the characters were developed enough and I felt kind of sad for his little stalker from the dead. You end up actually feeling sympathy for his dead stalker and in the end he ends up with the evil chick who replaced her at the office.

Doesn't that suck?

Interesting paranormal

Good urban fantasy/paranormal. If you like Harry Dresden and the like give this one a spin...

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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