What do you think?
Rate this book
Dead Bob
A submerged body with a finger-severed hand waving atop the water is enough to prompt Bob Ryba to wade into the murky waters of the Gowanus Canal. Perhaps if Bob had seen the approaching dark clouds behind him he would have thought better of it. Within seconds a lightning bolt strikes him squarely in the head leaving him dead and floating in the canal. Or did it?
“I woke up dead on a hot Thursday in August,” Bob says as he springs to wakefulness in the neighborhood funeral home, startling his friend, Gerry Cassapulla.
Bob has a lot of explaining to do. Not only to Gerry, the gay funeral director, but to his one-armed, large breasted, sex charged girlfriend Loretta. But in time, she accepts that Bob has somehow entered the world of the paranormal. Romance still blooms, and sexual juices flow, between the living and the dead. Or perhaps, the undead?
But what is Bob? He’s not a zombie because he doesn't crave human flesh. And he’s not a vampire since he can't so much as even move a muscle during the dark hours. But he’s certainly no longer human.
As Bob, Loretta and Gerry work to uncover the reason for Bob’s uncanny transformation in this urban fantasy set in Brooklyn, New York, a plague of serial murders infects the borough. Mysteriously, Bob and his two friends are catapulted into the world of amateur detectives, drawn toward discovering who has initiated the series of vile killings and horrifying dismemberments.
As the trio of friends draw closer to the identity of the murderer, Bob learns that he can’t easily be killed and Loretta and Gerry find out that they are somehow psychically connected to their dead friend. A new kind of super hero? Maybe. Certainly a new kind of being, one with remarkable healing powers and raging sexual desire.
Along the way to the showdown with the villain the three friends encounter:
•a guilt-ridden, traumatized priest that may hold the key to the identify of the serial killer;
•a mysterious man and woman that appear and disappear at will but not without first hinting at the reason for the changes in the new Bob;
•a beautiful, chain-smoking, bi-sexual FBI agent;
•a hard-nosed, African-American hipster reporter who suspects that Bob is more than just a regular Joe;
•and a variety of colorful characters from the neighborhood of Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
And then, what does all of this have to do with the Bible?
Who is Bob and why is he dead? Join Bob, Loretta and Gerry in their quest – sometimes funny, often grotesque, and always erotic - to find out why the three of them no longer are simply two guys and a girl from Carroll Gardens, but a formidable force against evil.
“I woke up dead on a hot Thursday in August,” Bob says as he springs to wakefulness in the neighborhood funeral home, startling his friend, Gerry Cassapulla.
Bob has a lot of explaining to do. Not only to Gerry, the gay funeral director, but to his one-armed, large breasted, sex charged girlfriend Loretta. But in time, she accepts that Bob has somehow entered the world of the paranormal. Romance still blooms, and sexual juices flow, between the living and the dead. Or perhaps, the undead?
But what is Bob? He’s not a zombie because he doesn't crave human flesh. And he’s not a vampire since he can't so much as even move a muscle during the dark hours. But he’s certainly no longer human.
As Bob, Loretta and Gerry work to uncover the reason for Bob’s uncanny transformation in this urban fantasy set in Brooklyn, New York, a plague of serial murders infects the borough. Mysteriously, Bob and his two friends are catapulted into the world of amateur detectives, drawn toward discovering who has initiated the series of vile killings and horrifying dismemberments.
As the trio of friends draw closer to the identity of the murderer, Bob learns that he can’t easily be killed and Loretta and Gerry find out that they are somehow psychically connected to their dead friend. A new kind of super hero? Maybe. Certainly a new kind of being, one with remarkable healing powers and raging sexual desire.
Along the way to the showdown with the villain the three friends encounter:
•a guilt-ridden, traumatized priest that may hold the key to the identify of the serial killer;
•a mysterious man and woman that appear and disappear at will but not without first hinting at the reason for the changes in the new Bob;
•a beautiful, chain-smoking, bi-sexual FBI agent;
•a hard-nosed, African-American hipster reporter who suspects that Bob is more than just a regular Joe;
•and a variety of colorful characters from the neighborhood of Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
And then, what does all of this have to do with the Bible?
Who is Bob and why is he dead? Join Bob, Loretta and Gerry in their quest – sometimes funny, often grotesque, and always erotic - to find out why the three of them no longer are simply two guys and a girl from Carroll Gardens, but a formidable force against evil.
507 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 8, 2012
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 6, 2013
Dead Bob is a life-infused, very funny tale of the newly-dead-yet-very-much-alive Robert Ryba, aka Bobby or Fish. I know it doesn't make any sense. Don't worry about making sense, just go along for the ride. That's what Bob's best friend and Gerry--also the undertaker in whose workplace Bob awakens--does. And if an undertaker can accept that the man he absolutely certified as dead is now getting off the table and talking to him, why can't you? Of course there are some strange aspects to being newly-dead-yet-very-much-alive. There's the absence of a heart beat and the lack of hunger but then to make up for what's missing, there are the very much enhanced body parts. Uh huh! You get what I mean.
That could be part of the attraction for Loretta, but it's not all. She's really crazy in love with Bob. Loretta has her own enhanced anatomy but that owes more to the surgeon's skill than any paranormal experience. One thing I can tell you without any fear of being a spoiler. This book is filled with truly mind-blowing sex. Remember Fifty Shades of etc. Those books have nothing on the sex life of this shade. Okay, I played a little with the words. Bob is about as far as you can get from being a ghost. He is physically present, very present. No Halloween white sheet stuff.
That's the set up: Dead Bob, Gerry, Loretta. As if that isn't enough, add a serial killer, the FBI, a priest who may or may not be a bad guy, another unexpected love story--and Brooklyn.
Dead Bob tries to pass itself off as a light-hearted mystery+romance with--let's just say--an unusual protagonist but it is much more than that. The language is terrific and will keep you flying through the novel. The voice is Bob's and he pulls no punches in his descriptions and thoughts. Leonard Norman get him perfectly just as he gets Loretta, Gerry and each of the individuals you will meet along the way if you are smart enough to pick up this fast-moving entertainment. While your impulse will be to ratchet along with the story, you will want to slow down to read--and for this reviewer to read and re-read--the wonderful descriptions of the Brooklyn streets and neighborhoods that we visit with Bob. I even enjoyed the less savory places when I could bring myself to remember that I was reading a book not actually wandering into the Gowanus Canal.
A question for the author: Mr. Norman, is there a sequel in the works? If so, sign me up now!
That could be part of the attraction for Loretta, but it's not all. She's really crazy in love with Bob. Loretta has her own enhanced anatomy but that owes more to the surgeon's skill than any paranormal experience. One thing I can tell you without any fear of being a spoiler. This book is filled with truly mind-blowing sex. Remember Fifty Shades of etc. Those books have nothing on the sex life of this shade. Okay, I played a little with the words. Bob is about as far as you can get from being a ghost. He is physically present, very present. No Halloween white sheet stuff.
That's the set up: Dead Bob, Gerry, Loretta. As if that isn't enough, add a serial killer, the FBI, a priest who may or may not be a bad guy, another unexpected love story--and Brooklyn.
Dead Bob tries to pass itself off as a light-hearted mystery+romance with--let's just say--an unusual protagonist but it is much more than that. The language is terrific and will keep you flying through the novel. The voice is Bob's and he pulls no punches in his descriptions and thoughts. Leonard Norman get him perfectly just as he gets Loretta, Gerry and each of the individuals you will meet along the way if you are smart enough to pick up this fast-moving entertainment. While your impulse will be to ratchet along with the story, you will want to slow down to read--and for this reviewer to read and re-read--the wonderful descriptions of the Brooklyn streets and neighborhoods that we visit with Bob. I even enjoyed the less savory places when I could bring myself to remember that I was reading a book not actually wandering into the Gowanus Canal.
A question for the author: Mr. Norman, is there a sequel in the works? If so, sign me up now!
November 4, 2012
This book was really weird and awesome. Definitely a page turner from the first page, with some ridiculous twists and turns. If you're looking for a shocking, entertaining, fun book then READ THIS ONE! If you're boring or are a nun, then don't.
October 12, 2012
Okay, so it might not be high literature, but rarely do I laugh this much while reading a horror story or a mystery. "Dead Bob" is both a tale of terror as well as a good old fashion serial killer who-done-it. Totally irreverent, and completely politically incorrect, it moves with ease from one crazy scene to the next. As goofy as it might be, it's really hard to put down.
There are occasionally scenes that may stretch credibility, like killing a pigeon as a result of a momentous ejaculation, but the overall nuttiness of the story grabs you and takes you along for the ride if you don't take it seriously.
The story involves one Bob Ryba, an everyman who is killed after being electrocuted in a chemical cesspool, but who is then resurrected as a combo plant/human hybrid. Even after having limbs severed, intestines impaled, and his head nearly lopped off, Bob cannot die. And he doesn't have the faintest clue as to why this is all happening to him. He's not a zombie or a vampire. Actually, he's kind of an anti-vampire because he sleeps all night, sunlight gives him energy, and the only thing he consumes is water.
Simultaneously, while trying to figure out why he's become undead, Bob finds himself investigating the brutal killing of random individuals throughout the borough of Brooklyn, not because he wants to, but for some reason, because he is compelled to. Bodies turn up haphazardly all over Brooklyn featuring a variety of mutilations and it doesn't take long to figure out that there's a single deranged killer that's doing all of the damage.
The best thing about the book are the characters. Bob is okay, although not as formidable as I would like. But his best friend Gerry, the gay undertaker, is great as his Dr. Watson. And one-armed, giant breasted girlfriend Loretta is by far the most intriguing character in the book and one of the liveliest characters I've ever experienced. She's a stereotype that actually knows she's a stereotype and her dialogue is as rich as it is profane. She alone is worth the price of the book.
The plot takes us all over Brooklyn and Manhattan, and there are secondary characters that prove to be quite a lot of fun including Loretta's mother and Gerry's cousin Edna, the bi-sexual FBI agent that doesn't shy away from her sexuality, nor her professional fortitude in attempting to solve the mystery of the serial killings. And for good measure, the author throws in a tenacious reporter that starts to realize that Bob isn't what he appears to be, like, maybe he's dead. Plus there's some mysterious additional characters that seem to be entwined with the reason for Bob's transformation, but they aren't talking and my guess is that we won't find out who they are until the next book.
Look, this book is filled with considerable, graphic sex which borders on the cartoonish, gruesome killings and, I think, a rather satisfying ending with the exception that we don't really find out why Bob is the way he is. But for a fun joyride through Brooklyn and a good, attention-keeping story, it's well worth the time.
There are occasionally scenes that may stretch credibility, like killing a pigeon as a result of a momentous ejaculation, but the overall nuttiness of the story grabs you and takes you along for the ride if you don't take it seriously.
The story involves one Bob Ryba, an everyman who is killed after being electrocuted in a chemical cesspool, but who is then resurrected as a combo plant/human hybrid. Even after having limbs severed, intestines impaled, and his head nearly lopped off, Bob cannot die. And he doesn't have the faintest clue as to why this is all happening to him. He's not a zombie or a vampire. Actually, he's kind of an anti-vampire because he sleeps all night, sunlight gives him energy, and the only thing he consumes is water.
Simultaneously, while trying to figure out why he's become undead, Bob finds himself investigating the brutal killing of random individuals throughout the borough of Brooklyn, not because he wants to, but for some reason, because he is compelled to. Bodies turn up haphazardly all over Brooklyn featuring a variety of mutilations and it doesn't take long to figure out that there's a single deranged killer that's doing all of the damage.
The best thing about the book are the characters. Bob is okay, although not as formidable as I would like. But his best friend Gerry, the gay undertaker, is great as his Dr. Watson. And one-armed, giant breasted girlfriend Loretta is by far the most intriguing character in the book and one of the liveliest characters I've ever experienced. She's a stereotype that actually knows she's a stereotype and her dialogue is as rich as it is profane. She alone is worth the price of the book.
The plot takes us all over Brooklyn and Manhattan, and there are secondary characters that prove to be quite a lot of fun including Loretta's mother and Gerry's cousin Edna, the bi-sexual FBI agent that doesn't shy away from her sexuality, nor her professional fortitude in attempting to solve the mystery of the serial killings. And for good measure, the author throws in a tenacious reporter that starts to realize that Bob isn't what he appears to be, like, maybe he's dead. Plus there's some mysterious additional characters that seem to be entwined with the reason for Bob's transformation, but they aren't talking and my guess is that we won't find out who they are until the next book.
Look, this book is filled with considerable, graphic sex which borders on the cartoonish, gruesome killings and, I think, a rather satisfying ending with the exception that we don't really find out why Bob is the way he is. But for a fun joyride through Brooklyn and a good, attention-keeping story, it's well worth the time.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews