Late Review: Dead to Me

I wrote up a review for SFRevu on Anton Strout's Dead to Me. Trouble is, the issue went live yesterday. Darn it. So it might not see print for a month.

The protagonist/narrator is Simon Canderous, a reformed petty thief with a knack for psychometry (that's the psychic talent of getting info from physical objects, like John Smith in The Dead Zone). His power is not wholly a blessing, as he gets more info about his girlfriends than he wants sometimes; it also got him into trouble when he was using his gift to cheat at gambling, to name but one element of his misspent youth.

Now he works for New York City's Department of Extraordinary Affairs, who are secret police of the supernatural. His newest case is a doozy, too, involving a dead woman who hasn't passed on, a nonprofit that benefits evil cults, a seller of occult books and a perky Midwestern girl that Simon--with all his talents--can't figure out.

It's a fun read and a good mystery. Simon doesn't have the kneejerk anti-authoritarian attitude that I've gotten pretty tired of (why does every supernatural PI have to talk trash just to piss off the monsters?), and the interjection of humor keeps the book from spiraling into the depths of doom and gloom. It's a neat piece of work, so I suggest you find it and read it.

My longer review should be on SFRevu either this week or April 1.