Dirt

by Sean Doolittle

On a clear autumn L.A. morning, sitting in the front row of his best friend's funeral, professional loafer Quince Bishop can't think of anything more depressing than watching yet another loved one being lowered into the ground—until a band of guerilla environmentalists crash the ceremony to deliver a lecture on the high cost of dying in America. One violent impulse later, Quince finds himself up to his waist in dirt ... and he hasn't even begun to dig himself a hole. With the help of beautiful funeral-rights advocate Maria Casteneda—not to mention the complicated ambitions of reporter and perennial ex-girlfriend Melanie Roth—Quince learns just how an unscrupulous funeral director can turn death into a high-class living. Unable to let buried skeletons lie, Quince Bishop unwittingly sets himself on a collision course with two entrepreneurial ex-cons who are hatching a burial plot of their own. Chaos, confusion, and double-dealing are on the program, and only one thing is all paths lead to the cemetery.

Genres: Mystery Thriller, Mystery

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Quince Bishop
RATING: 3.75
WHY: Quince Bishop is at his best friend's funeral when a group of protesters claiming to be from the SoCal Memorial Society disrupt the scene, upending the casket, on behalf of mahogany logging. The casket is copper. The leader of the Memorial Society, Maria Castaneda, seems totally unaware of who these people are. Her group try to protect others from the vagaries of the funeral industry. One of her targets is the funeral director for this ceremony, Joel Moss. He has 2 ex-cons for groundskeepers, and one of them is quite unsavory. Things get quite complicated and dangerous. Although there was a bit too much inside information about the funeral industry, I enjoyed the characters and Doolittle's writing style.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elmore Leonard meets Serge Storm in the midwest, and you get an idea of Doolittle's outrageous tale.
With the requisite of quirky characters, the laid back protagonist, that "some" day will write that screenplay. You have all the makings of laugh out loud debut.

[Hazy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny with enough dark humor without being annoyingly edgy. Only issue is the occasional typo, but otherwise a good weekend read.

[Kara Jorges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quince Bishop is a slacker, living off his trust fund. He doesn’t get too worked up about anything until a group of punks disrupt his best friend’s funeral. Then, his actions land him in some intrigue. The punks at the funeral claim to be from the SoCal Memorial Society, protesting mahogany logging even though the casket was metal. Then Maria Castaneda of the SoCal Memorial Society shows up and tells Quince she has no idea who the protesters were. Her organization are not environmentalists, they protect the bereaved from unscrupulous funeral directors, one of whom she believes is Joel Moss, director of the Palm Grove Cemetery where the incident happened. Working the grounds there are two ex-cons, Billy Guilder and Carl Rosen. Billy knows the ropes but Carl isn’t interested in much but schemes, until Moss gives him a job he completes a little too enthusiastically, which sets events in motion, endangering some lives and taking others.

For a mystery, this book is a lot of fun. It’s unique to find intrigue set in a cemetery and delving into the lives of people who work there. Quince finds himself unwittingly pulled into the fray by being in the wrong place at the right time, and manages to figure out a few things in his life through the events in the book.

While I can’t quite climb on board with all the hype, this was a very good mystery novel written in the same style in which all the best crime fiction is written. Every character has a point of view and a personality, playing off each other as the story unfolds. Sean Doolittle is definitely an author to read.

[Esther Somorai · Rating 4 out of 5]

The basic subject of the story was very interesting with action and tense, serious moments, and some funny ones as well, throughout. A diverse cast of characters that kept things lively and moving along most of the time. The story brought out some very interesting things that may or may not be going on in some mortuaries and/or cemeteries in the real world. It sure is something to think about. (Use of F-word mainly from one character.)

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the book from my stack for the month. I have had this since it was published and even had the author sign it in Vegas but just got around to reading it. A fun romp through the corrupt funeral home industry.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty satisfying crime novel that twists and turns about 1,000 times before the end

[Michel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much better than Rain Dog...more to come.