The Glorious Dead

by Justin Myers

Laurie Blount, enfant terrible of the West End, the voice of a generation, a shining star.

dead. Very, very dead.

Killed in a car crash in the middle of the night, Laurie exited this world the way he lived his life - dramatically and dangerously.

Laurie 's husband Jo, best friend Vivi and goddaughter Rosy must step out from grief 's shadow and face life without him. Until rumours of Laurie 's unpublished memoir begin to haunt the group. Waspish, wicked and witty, these confessions reveal a side to Laurie nobody really knew . . . or would admit to knowing. But can the words of a dead man be trusted?

Laurie 's grieving loved ones are about to discover that comedy and tragedy are the same mistakes, made under different lighting. If Jo, Vivi and Rosy are ever to find peace in the future, they might need to lift the curtain on Laurie 's past - as well as their own.

Can a dead man shatter your life one chapter at a time?

'Myers does it again - crafting a moving mediation on art, love, loss and what it means to be happy in a world that has passed you by . . . You'll wish Laurie Blount was your friend. Until you very much don't' CARL ANKA

'I'm going to be thinking about Laurie, Jo and Vivi for a long time to come. I was already a massive fan of Justin's writing, and now I'm officially a creep' LUCY VINE

'Witty and devastatingly astute . . . Myers writes his characters masterfully, his controlled and precise storytelling leading us down a path that feels more dangerous and thrilling with each step' LAURA KAY

Genres: Contemporary, LGBT

360 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 18, 2025

About the author

Justin Myers is an author and journalist from Shipley, West Yorkshire. Perhaps best known for his work as The Guyliner and his Impeccable Table Manners blog, Justin's writing has featured in many leading publications, including the Guardian, GQ, and The Times. He is the author of four novels: The Last Romeo (2018), The Magnificent Sons (2020), The Fake-Up (2022), and Leading Man (2024), all published by Little, Brown. A fifth novel, The Glorious Dead, arrives September 2025, from Renegade.

Reviews

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laurie Blount, award-winning playwright, is dead. After receiving the news, his husband and close friends navigate their grief in vastly different ways. When chapters of Laurie’s unpublished memoirs are read, those closest to him have to face up to that fact that maybe they didn’t know Laurie as well as they thought they did.

This story is told from multiple POV’s, mainly Jo’s (Laurie’s husband). There are also chapter of Laurie’s memoirs that provide insight into his thoughts and feelings throughout the years.

I enjoyed getting to know all of the characters and the theatre industry through the eyes of different people, with different backgrounds and backstories.

I felt that the pacing for the first half was quite slow but the last 30% really made up for this. I liked the way everything tied up but also was left really ambiguous. It highlighted to me that you can never really know someone, despite how close you perceive to be to them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Linda Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jo’s husband Laurie has just died in a car crash.

The Glorious Dead was not the book I was expecting to read. I’d anticipated a rather light, gay romcom that served as an entertaining diversion from life. Those lighter elements are present, but The Glorious Dead is so, so much more.

There’s an intensity to the prose as husband Jo, Laurie’s best friend Vivi and her daughter Rosy, navigate their grief at Laurie’s death. It’s often the most prosaic moments when grief hits them, as it does in real life, so that The Glorious Dead is relatable and moving. With quite a reduced cast of characters too, the story feels intimate and confidential – especially when we have Laurie’s first person thread.

However, as well as surprisingly moving, I also found The Glorious Dead incredibly funny. Justin Myers writes with an acerbic wit that perfectly sums up society. The variety of sentence structure means that sarcasm, irony and humour weave through, balancing Jo’s grief (and, later, his guilt) to perfection. Whilst there are frequent expletives that can often feel misplaced in fiction, in The Glorious Dead there’s a fantastic sense of authorial voice leading the reader through the complexities of life beyond Laurie, making such vocabulary part of the realism and humour. It’s no exaggeration to say I kept thinking of Voltaire’s satirical writing as I read.

As the plot progresses, themes of friendship, lives after a death, relationships and loyalty swirl through, but there’s also unexpected mystery that elevates the narrative still further into an intriguing and thought-provoking read. And in amongst the pain, there’s hope too so that The Glorious Dead looks into the dark heart of humanity and finds there is also optimism, redemption and positivity.

The characters are fabulous. They are flawed, selfish, deceptive and, to be honest, thoroughly despicable on the whole. And yet they are warm, human and appealing. There’s an irony that the youngest, Rosy, is the most consistent – a kind of Shakespearean Touchstone. She is a wonderful contrast to the others, all of whom I loved and hated in equal measure. Given that the story opens with Laurie’s death in a car accident, I found him rather like a literary car crash. I didn’t always want to read his words, but I simply couldn’t look away! He really is the most appalling, fascinating and vivid character.

The Glorious Dead will entertain you royally. It is a love story. It’s a social commentary. It’s a mystery. It’s also more than the sum of its parts. It will also leave you wondering just how well you know those around you, and perhaps more profoundly, just how well you know yourself. Justin Myers shows us that life is complicated, messy and challenging and we navigate our way through it to the best (or sometimes worst) of our ability.

I thought The Glorious Dead was a remarkable story that delivered far, far more emotion and depth than I expected. I really recommend it.

[Laura Stoker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Felt like hearing excellent gossip whilst also reminiscing with friends. Made me both want to kiss and kick everyone I've known and loved. I loved it.

[Jack Bates · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this because I love Myers' writing and he was very excited about publishing something that's a bit more - complex? mature? perhaps, than his usual rom coms.

It's still very funny, and even romantic, but, maybe because it's about older characters (they're mostly in their forties) it does feel slightly more sophisticated and grown-up. I'm happy to read about young(er) people and their trials and tribulations but of course I'm more interested in people closer to my own age.

Jo and Laurie have been together for a long time, and perhaps not always entirely happily, but that doesn't make Laurie's unexpected death any less shocking, and the profoundly unsettling repercussions, not just for Jo but for Laurie's best friend, Vivi, are disconcerting. There are some really brilliant descriptions of what it feels like to grieve for a friend and also a friendship, the jokes and memories that can never be replicated.

I really did feel like Myers' writing has taken a huge leap forward with this, which is saying a lot as I already thought he was a great writer. This is an unexpectedly twisty and very satisfying story with lots of 'OMG' moments and suitably waspish humour from Laurie, who may be dead but is a vibrant presence nonetheless, though his writing.

I loved it.

[Kath · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read all this author's previous books and have loved every one. This one, well, ooof. It's a step above the rom coms that he usually offers. And it's blooming marvellous!
We start with a death. Laurie Blount has been killed in a car accident. Leaving behind husband Jo, best friend Vivi, goddaughter Rosie, and a whole eclectic mix of friends and hangers on. The book starts off with them, at the time of notification, and the hours, days, months, and years after, as they all try to pick up the pieces from his loss and try and make the most of their lives going forward. As they also come to admit that maybe he wasn't as perfect as they thought...
We also hear from Laurie himself in the format of a memoir he was writing. With each excerpt skilfully inserted into the narrative in the perfect position to either complement or progress it.
But things aren't as straightforward as you think... but I will leave the author to explain that one...
Oh my days, wasn't this the book that kept on giving. Laurie was a bit of a character, wasn't he? Well, he was an actor, with a massive following of sycophants and hangers on as well as young aspiring creatives wanting a leg up the ladder. Leg up, or maybe also a leg over!?!?
An then there's Jo. The widower left behind. How soon does he take to get back on with his life. To learn to laugh again, to love again. How even do you handle grief. And betrayal, of Laurie, Vivi as he moves on. It's all rather a complicated mess... But really well described by the author.
And it's also rather funny in places which prevents the book from getting too dark. And there are also some quite shocking reveals to be had along the way. One of which I kicked myself when I found out and didn't realise before! One which I kinda had an inkling about but was equally shocked when I found my guess was right.
As always, the characters absolutely shine in this book. The author has a right knack of creating some the best characters and making them feel so very very real. They are not perfect, who is? But individually and together, they all come across as wholly credible. Warts and all. And there's quite a few of them!
And the story, well, when all was eventually said and done, absolutely exhausted me. All the twists and turns, and that final denouement. Ooof. Leaving me wholly satisfied and also well impressed at the way the author has stepped up to produce something a bit more mature, more complex. I do wonder what he will have in store for me for next time, and can he please get a wriggle on with it!
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

[Acantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the blurb I was expecting something ala Gossip Girl, an explosive memoir, a race against time to uncover the truth...

What I got was a devastating exploration of grief, of what it meant to be the one left behind, of how you learn to live in a space without the important person in it. It was slow moving, painful, showed these characters at their best and worse as they each tried to swallow the pain of what had happened. It was aching to read, if a little slow and I kept waiting for something to happen but at the same time loath to express that frustration, to break into that circle of grief, as if it was some real, tangible thing.

Well, the first 60 to 70 percent of the book was that. Then it was almost as if it became a different story, existing post #MeToo, redefying everything and offering answers to questions that hadn't been asked. The last 25% was all action and twist after twist. I loved the first major twist, Jo's actions, I felt it really reframed everything that had come before, my frustration at his behaviour shifted to delight, to knowing that *spoiler*.

Then the next twist and okay, sort of undid what came before, but still, I could follow this, I enjoyed it. And then the next twist. And the next. And the ne- well, you get the idea. It was endlessly turning everything on its head, refusing to allow you to even enjoy the last twist before the next one came along. It stopped making sense and started being about the twist for the sake of the twist, as opposed to any coherent story. Almost every chapter had some twist. And these aren't long chapters.

I didn't really find it funny either, the humour seemed to be that sharp mocking pain that people do when they try and be witty, and then laugh if someone dares feel hurt by it.

It's a really strange one to judge, because it felt like two books and while I had felt hurt by the first part, it was almost a good hurt, exploring this grief. Then delight. Then despair.

In the end I have to go with my gut and how I felt after finishing it. Which was dirty, depressed, deflated and not having a good time.

~Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review~

[Mike Clarke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Glad it’s all over: fast fiction, like the food and the fashion, is cheap, instantaneous satiation that is unnourishing and unsustainable. Publishers, desperate to be considered hip and not irrelevant in any way are going round signing up influencers and podcasters and all manner of riffraff and encouraging them to write the book everyone’s got in them, ie the one that should stay where it is.

The Glorious Dead, a beached whale of a novel - bloated, pointless and a bit of a headache to deal with - is one such product. The story is mundane (a gay couple unwittingly sleeping with the same man, albeit several years apart and after one of them dies in this case, is perhaps more common than the sub-Jeffrey Archer way it’s presented here suggests), the dialogue stilted with soap opera stylings, and the characterisations, far from being “full of wit, perception and acute emotional honesty” as one of the logrolling cover puffs describes them, are tepid, derivative and dull to torpor.

It takes about 200 pages before the book cranks into a simulacrum of life with *that* revelation; but it’s the false hope of a corpse twitch, and the whole thing collapses in on itself again, brought down by the drivelling nature of its concept. I suppose Hachette thinks this is modern.

It’s not all bad: the author looks a bit hench in his ombre et noir jacket pic, and there are a few laughs - perhaps not intentionally - such as when he compares a play to a “provincial am-dram Agatha Christie knockoff” - perhaps one about a dead bitchy playwright and his boyfriends - or when Laurie, the dead protagonist, attends a screening of his twinky crush’s first film: “the usual…fodder. Queer misery. Blazingly unoriginal characters…I left the screening doubting everything I thought I knew about talent and opportunity.” For this, we have talented writers.

[Haxxunne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mysterious, romantic novel on grief, loss and recovery
—
Famous and successful playwright Laurie Blount is dead at 45 in a car accident, leaving behind his friends, family (distant), found family and husband Jo, all of them left to pick up the pieces. And then Jo finds Laurie’s memoir, and the man who Jo thought loved him beyond distraction is not the man revealed on the page. Who can Jo ask to discover the truth? Or will he be consumed in grief and anger at the betrayals?

This is distinct development from Myers’s previous romcoms, starring an older cast and with palpable grief and loss throughout, which felt real and messy and disorienting for the characters. Still with a cattiness and a lightness of touch in the memoir chapters, but the mystery, which won’t be spoiled here, adds to the tension in the plot which covers the beginning of Laurie’s beginnings and early success, Laurie and Jo’s romance and its development, leading all the way past his death and to Jo’s slow unfurling to romance again. I appreciated getting to know Laurie through the memoir, and the narrative game that was played with that text, but I most enjoyed how Myers showed different ways to navigate loss. Thank you for that, Justin.

[Margo Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book begins in the immediate aftermath of the playwright Laurie Blount dying in an accident at the age of 45, leaving his husband Jo and best friend Viv grief-stricken. There are poignant observations about the way Jo and Viv leave gaps in their conversations for Laurie to speak, and space for him when walking down the street, out of habit. There's a polite tension to this grief: "an understanding between them that neither will ever say out loud: that they both wish the other had died instead of Laurie."

As the story unfurls, it edges more into the style of a mystery, with a tangled web of relationships, resentments, secrets and lies surrounding the departed Laurie. It's an unusual structure, with something of Citizen Kane about it. Or perhaps Touch of Evil with that bitter line: "what does it matter what you say about people?" It's beautifully written, reminding me of Deborah Moggach's 'The Black Dress', with sharp and humorous descriptions of characters who are all too fallible.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.

[Lara A · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Rounded up. Despite having been a fan since the Guyliner days, this is only the second novel by Myers that I have read, as the others seem to have passed me by. This has a very intriguing set up of a tale of several viewpoints, including one from beyond the grave with a voice which allows Myers' waspish wit free reign. The downside to this is initially it is hard for the characters to exist as opposed to this reading like an extended Guyliner substack, especially with the regular newsletter preoccupations like the fear of ageing featuring so prominently.

However, slowly a twistier tale emerges. Parts of this read like Bella magazine's Twist in the Tale feature, and I mean this as the most highest praise. However, there is slightly one twist too many in the hands of ever so slightly under baked characters to make this entirely satisfying. It's frustrating, because I really enjoyed reading this and could frankly read much, much more of Laurie. Stuff realism. I want a twist where he's not actually dead, expanded upon at length in a sequel.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was trying to explain to my husband the many-years-long parasocial relationship I have with Justin Myers. I think I have been reading him since he was reviewing his own dates, but I may have gone into his backlist at some point. And then his reviews of the Guardian Blind Dates, his columns in GQ, then his novels. You spend 15 years reading someone's writing, you think you have a bit of a handle on them. The Glorious Dead is not what I expected and so much better. There are definitely recognisable bits of observation and cultural references, but the plot is much more deftly woven than his previous books.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laurie Blount, renowned playwright and celebrity is dead, and with his death, the lives of those nearest and dearest to him are unravelled, not just in grief, but in a series of discoveries that call into question everything they knew about Laurie and their relationships with him. This is a deft and twisted unravelling of a life told in diary entries interspersed with flashbacks and scenes of the grieving process. It's dark and witty, making the most of a series of emotional depth charges that go off in surprising directions leaving you, the reader always one step behind.

[Heather (londonhev)]

this really was dark - the secrets we keep, from those closest to us, but also games people play, and how easy it is to turn away from things we know to be wrong, because we don't want to rock the boat, or because we just can't be bothered. but very enjoyable - beautifully written, with such distinct voices for each character, with a gently twisty plot, and an exploration of grief, growing up, living life or letting it pass you by. the ending will stay with me.

[Bookish Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant story full of twists & turns. Equally hilarious and heartbreaking, it had me hooked from the beginning. There are some great characters in the book and some truly loathsome ones! My first Justin Myers book but not my last.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books focuses on the life and death of Laurie Blount, a famous playwright whose behaviour reminded me a bit of a modern day Oscar Wilde or Byron with all the glamour that surrounds our memory of them.

It was a fascinating tale of those closest to Laurie, how they featured in his life, how they deal with his death, and how the loss impacts their own lives. The novel focuses on human connection, friendship and enduring love between Laurie, his husband, Jo, his friend Vivi and goddaughter, Rosy.

This was my first Justin Myers and based on reviews for his other novels, I was really excited to get my hands on it! It was an interesting read, not always easy, but at the end, I felt like I had read something fresh and unique.

My thanks go to Justin Myers, Renegade Books, and NetGalley, for this ARC in return for an honest review.

[afra · Rating 4 out of 5]

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This is an ARC review. I appreciate receiving this copy from NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review.