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The Corpse and the Girl from Miami
In the middle of the night, in the middle of a thunderstorm, he wakes with no memoryon a fresh grave,With a bullet hole in his chest.The name on the licensein his wallet matches the stone.He doesn’t believe it.But the address on that licenseis his only clue.One part crime noir,one part horror,one part magic.Pure pulp.
- GenresHorror
306 pages, Paperback
First published April 23, 2017
10 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
John Urbancik
77 books64 followersWriter of ghost stories and fairy tales. Born on a small island in the northeast United States called Manhattan, John went on to live in places like Orlando, Richmond, Sydney, and Madrid. He's circled the US in a car, and he recently started learning to play the bass.
But he may be best known for InkStains, the year-long project in which he wrote a story a day every day by hand with a fountain pen. This led to a podcast and then a nonfiction book (InkStained: On Creativity, Writing, and Art).
As of this writing, he's isolated somewhere in Florida working on the end of the DarkWalker series, a vampire novel, and Gothic romance.
But he may be best known for InkStains, the year-long project in which he wrote a story a day every day by hand with a fountain pen. This led to a podcast and then a nonfiction book (InkStained: On Creativity, Writing, and Art).
As of this writing, he's isolated somewhere in Florida working on the end of the DarkWalker series, a vampire novel, and Gothic romance.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Want to read
September 19, 2018This hardcover edition is numbered copy 14 of 52 printed, and is signed by John Urbancik.
Cover art by Kristina Carroll.
Cover art by Kristina Carroll.
June 5, 2017
John Urbancik’s style is spellbinding. He’s a consummate craftsman. His writing seems like a cross between Raymond Chandler and Stephen King, with maybe a little Richard Thomas thrown in. Maybe some Lewis Carroll, too, to make it even more surreal.
The Corpse and the Girl from Miami (Dark Fluidity, 2017) is a mystery within a mystery. It’s noir and a supernatural thriller all in one.
And, despite everything else, it’s also a love story.
It’s set in Boston, MA, not in Miami. There are some displaced Floridians (Ofelia, Mr. Maker, Armando Luis Salazar) prowling the New England darkness one unusually stormy night, but they have no special love for Bean Town. Neither does The Corpse.
Imagine waking up in a cemetery with three bullet holes in your chest and no pulse. You have no remembrance of who shot you or why. You can’t even remember your name.
Piecing together his identity and solving the mystery of his murder turns into a herculean task for the dead man. There’s another walking dead man and a burgeoning cast of characters, some of whom may be aligned with powerful supernatural forces, to complicate the plot.
No one tells the truth. Ferreting out who killed whom, who is working for whom, and who’s a good person and who’s a bad person keeps the reader turning pages.
If you like a good mystery in an urban fantasy with supernatural elements, you’ll love The Corpse and the Girl from Miami.
The Corpse and the Girl from Miami (Dark Fluidity, 2017) is a mystery within a mystery. It’s noir and a supernatural thriller all in one.
And, despite everything else, it’s also a love story.
It’s set in Boston, MA, not in Miami. There are some displaced Floridians (Ofelia, Mr. Maker, Armando Luis Salazar) prowling the New England darkness one unusually stormy night, but they have no special love for Bean Town. Neither does The Corpse.
Imagine waking up in a cemetery with three bullet holes in your chest and no pulse. You have no remembrance of who shot you or why. You can’t even remember your name.
Piecing together his identity and solving the mystery of his murder turns into a herculean task for the dead man. There’s another walking dead man and a burgeoning cast of characters, some of whom may be aligned with powerful supernatural forces, to complicate the plot.
No one tells the truth. Ferreting out who killed whom, who is working for whom, and who’s a good person and who’s a bad person keeps the reader turning pages.
If you like a good mystery in an urban fantasy with supernatural elements, you’ll love The Corpse and the Girl from Miami.
January 31, 2018
4 AND 1/2 STARS
There is no question John Urbancik is a legitimately great writer and this latest book really entertains. His style is as distinctive as Tom Piccirilli or Brian Evenson. You read just a couple sentences and you know immediately who wrote it. I appreciate the risk Urbancik took with this novel, blending various genres into a sort of a dark crime-noir-supernatural-horror story. And while some elements worked better than others, it succeeded admirably most of the time.
I guess my one criticism is that I felt the material really only needed a novella length to tell the story, maybe around a hundred and fifty pages or so, not the three hundred it ended up being. The beginning was a very slow build up that might throw some readers off with so many unanswered questions, but if they stick with it, the payoff is worth the journey. Great dialogue and intensely flawed characters make this one of the better books in the past year, worthy of many top ten lists I have seen from 2017. My suspicion is that this might even be more enjoyable after a second read. Highly recommended.
There is no question John Urbancik is a legitimately great writer and this latest book really entertains. His style is as distinctive as Tom Piccirilli or Brian Evenson. You read just a couple sentences and you know immediately who wrote it. I appreciate the risk Urbancik took with this novel, blending various genres into a sort of a dark crime-noir-supernatural-horror story. And while some elements worked better than others, it succeeded admirably most of the time.
I guess my one criticism is that I felt the material really only needed a novella length to tell the story, maybe around a hundred and fifty pages or so, not the three hundred it ended up being. The beginning was a very slow build up that might throw some readers off with so many unanswered questions, but if they stick with it, the payoff is worth the journey. Great dialogue and intensely flawed characters make this one of the better books in the past year, worthy of many top ten lists I have seen from 2017. My suspicion is that this might even be more enjoyable after a second read. Highly recommended.
October 3, 2018
Engrossing novel of one dead man's attempt to find out who killed him and another reanimated man who does remember who killed him and his thirst for revenge. Interesting characters and suspenseful twisted plot. Philip Marlowe meets The Re-animator. Very highly recommended.
December 11, 2017
Review in the 12/1/17 issue of IndiePicks Magazine and on the blog: https://raforall.blogspot.com/2017/12...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews