Dead Is Better (Charlie & Rose Book 1) by Jo Perry
"It's weird, unique, funny and sad all at the same time. An emotional read, but a bloody great story! I can’t wait to read the follow up, Dead Is Best!"
Charles Stone has just woken up dead. Well he’s pretty sure he’s dead, what with the bullet holes in his chest and all. He also appears to be totally alone in the after-life except for the ghostly dog who seems to be his new companion.
Unable to interact with the world of the living other than watching and listening, he and the dead dog (whom he names Rose) have nothing to do and all the time in the world to do it.
When Charles and Rose try to unravel the circumstances of Charles's death, they uncover a criminal who is raking in millions of dollars by cruelly exploiting, and sometimes killing, his victims.
But what difference can a ghost make?
And what does the damn dog have to do with any of this?
"Perry’s prose here is blunt, clean, simple and sharp. It's Charlie’s voice, but it's also Philip Marlow, and, at times,the combination of direct language and surreality overlaying worlds unsaid makes this feel like a Noir novel by Sam Beckett."
"Jo Perry's novel got under my skin and just wouldn't turn me loose"
"Deep, dark edges that still somehow let in the light, which is in turn harsh and silvery and, as in one of the quotations, “bonewhite…like death, behind all things." I love this story— of redemption, of love, of connection— and I love this book."