Transorbital

by Nathan Singer

With his trusty ice pick in hand and his loyal—though erratic—sidekick riding shotgun, superstar lobotomist Dr. Walter Freeman drives his Lobotomobile coast to coast across post-war America, determined to save the country from its own troubled mind. With messianic fervor, an evangelist’s sense of righteousness, and a jazzman’s gift for improvisation (and showmanship), Doc Freeman is quickly gaining converts, and notoriety. All is going just swell, until a number of Freeman’s former protégés start turning up dead, and only Freeman’s assistant, The Kid, is able to recognize that something sinister is afoot. Will The Kid be able to keep his demons at bay and get to the bottom of things before the bodies really start piling up? Creepy, grimy, and darkly humorous, Transorbital is an off-kilter twist on the old pulp whodunit. Praise for “Nathan Singer is what a writer is meant to daring, unique, original, and insightful. Transorbital proves it in spades.” —Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins “Nathan Singer’s Transorbital pulses with a relentless momentum. In Transorbital, Singer propels a strange, unsettling world reminiscent of William Burroughs’s best work with the fierce urgency of a Michael Crichton science thriller. With Transorbital, Nathan Singer has once again proven himself the master of the literary pulp thriller.” —Steve Weddle, author of Country Hardball “I love everything about this book. I love the cult of the Transorbitals and the circus freakiness of it all. Like an ice pick to the frontal lobe of conventional fiction, Transorbital is what happens when the brilliant mind of Nathan Singer is unleashed on one of medicine’s most embarrassing periods.”—Bryon Quertermous, author of Murder Boy

193 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 31, 2015

Reviews

[RReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging book. Easy to read writing style, very enjoyable. I learned a lot about the title subject and there was a lot of attention to period details and character development. Intense subject matter and a well spun yarn.

[Elizabeth Fleck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without giving away too much of the book, since so much of it relies on mystery, what I admire most about Transorbital is its ability to do three things. The first, and most important, thing this book will do is make you cringe. Not cringe because of bad writing, but cringe because of how good the sensory details in this book are. As the name implies, there are many transorbital lobotomies going on in the book, and the author doesn't shy away from the imagery. The way the ice pick is described as squishing into someone's brain is totally terrifying, yet amazing. It made my head hurt just thinking about it. The next thing this book does well is, oddly enough, humor. Even if it is a very dark humor, this book has a lot of moments that made me laugh out loud, mostly because of the self-righteous nature of Dr. Walter Freeman. He is convinced that his way of lobotomy is not as barbaric as its predecessors. What he doesn't realize is all lobotomies are extremely inhuman, which is something a modern audience will immediately recognize. Finally, Transorbital really knows how to deal in mystery. The story of other lobotomy doctors turning up dead, and ultimately the reveal of who's been murdering them, is shocking and very unsuspected. I truly didn't figure out what was going on until the end, but when I did figure it out, it seemed so obvious. It made me want to go back and reread the book, looking for clues. All in all, Transorbital is a fantastic horror book that left me wanting more!

[London · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHOAH.
Talk about zero to sixty.
I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I bought Transorbital at Cincinnati Comic Expo last week. I thought it looked interesting, and Post Mortem Press seemed like the kind of publishing company that both aligned with my interests, and took them into a little bit of a different direction, just enough to make it unique.
Boy, was I right.
Transorbital is a novel (novella? It's a perfectly digestible 190-something pages) that can't be put down. Gritty, visceral, and full of detailed medicinal information, this is an off-kilter story that draws you in and spits you out, a roller coaster ride all the while.

[Chuck Byrd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth novel by Nathan Singer. Totally unique from the other three. Nathan likes to fuck with his readers. I guess we deserve it. Nathan has a bombastic voice on the microphone and especially on the page. His characters often times make me feel yucky and in need of a shower. No different this time around. Buckle in and buckle up and try to enjoy the ride. It's going to be bumpy and uncomfortable.....just the way we like it.

[Tyler Benton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Singer is always balls to the wall. Cringe worthy and funny and surprising. Five stars from me.