What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

This was a humorous Fantasy book I read maybe 10 years or so ago about a guy that dies and “wakes up” to find the underworld populated with various demons, imps, and such, but they sound and act more like 1930’s mobsters than the usual Hell and Brimstone type of demons. He makes the acquaintance of a particular fellow who shows him around and explains how things are done. I can’t remember much more about it than that unfortunately. I think it was the first in a trilogy or series but can’t swear to that. I do remember that when I finished it I intended to look up the author to search for a sequel but life intervened and I never did. I read it on my Kindle, I’m pretty sure it was a “borrowed” book instead of a purchase, extensive searching through my Kindle content and history have failed to turn up any traces of it, it’s like it never existed. This really bugs me, any help would be greatly appreciated

Les, do you have any idea of the book was new at the time you read it, or an older book? Could you tell if the book was aimed at a YA audience, or written for adults? Can you recall what the main character died of? Did the KIndle edition have a cover and if so can you recall anything about the cover design? Any idea whether the author had a male or female name?

Thanks for your questions. Seems like the book was fairly new at the time that I read it. I have the impression that any possible sequel had not yet been written at the time but I'm not positive about that. I don't have the feeling that it was aimed at a YA audience, more a general audience. No idea what the guy died of. No idea what the cover page looked like or author gender. My poor memory is the reason I'm having such a hard time identifying the book. I am an avid reader and have read hundreds of books since this one so details are hazy.

I thought it might be an Alan Dean Foster book, but have been searching through his books and haven't found anything. It is possible that I have some elements confused with other books I have read, so if anyone thinks they might have read something similar but with differences, please speak up, you might have it.

Could it be something by Tom Holt?
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Your book doesn't sound like anything of his I've read, but he wrote a lot of books, and I think some of them take place in Hell.

Better link now that I'm on a platform that Goodreads likes:
Tom Holt

Thanks for the suggestion Kat. I have browsed through Tom Holt's book listing and haven't seen any that look right so far. But like you said, he has a LOT of books, I haven't picked my way through all of them yet.

Les, can we eliminate Me & Death: An Afterlife Adventure by Richard Scrimger?

How old is the guy who dies?

Does he stay in Hell or does he spend time among the living?

A long shot - Dead Man Walking by David Green?

Google search of Goodreads:
site:goodreads.com "fantasy" "dies" "hell" "noir" "funny" demons

Thanks Kris, but these aren't it either. I think the guy was an adult but not yet "middle age". It's odd that it is being so elusive, I never expected this book to be so hard to find.

Les, I copied some book details to the topic header. Feel free to edit it.

If your book isn't on the "Hellish Humor" list, you might want to add your book when it's found.

I don't think they were ever made available on Kindle, and also they were written/published a while back, so my chance of hitting the bullseye here is basically zilch, but maybe take a look at the Snake Oil books by Parke Godwin (sorry I can't link, I'm using the app), in particular the second one, Snake Oil Wars? (It's entirely possible to read the second book without having read the first. One/some character[s] carry over from the first book, but the plot is totally independent of it.) I don't remember many details, but the setting is an afterlife/Hell kind of place, at least one of the main characters has just died, and there are some sort of shenanigans where the inhabitants of the afterlife/Hell are playing roles in order to manipulate the newly dead guy somehow, I think.

The descriptions of the books on Goodreads give almost no details, so they're probably useless, unfortunately, but there might be better information/plot summaries put there somewhere.

I'm also assuming it's not Terry Pratchett's Eric, but since that's another humorous fantasy "weird stuff happens in a Hell-like place" where someone is given a sort of tour, I may as well throw it out there.

The Snake Oil Wars or Scheherazade Ginsberg Strikes Again / The Snake Oil Wars by Parke Godwin seems to have two different Goodreads entries. The first book in the series is Waiting for the Galactic Bus

And here's Eric by Terry Pratchett just in case.

Yesterday I fired up an old laptop I hadn’t used in a long time, and poking around I found the ebook manager Calibre on it, I had completely forgotten that I used to use that. Poking through Calibre I found the title of a “borrowed” and returned Kindle book, the only one I had ever borrowed, and lo and behold that was it! Only the title was there but that was enough to look it up on Amazon, I read enough of the free sample to confirm that this was the book I have been looking for: “Into the Abyss”, book one of “Demons of Astlan” by J. Langland.
I had misremembered some things about it, but considering that I have read a few hundred other books since this one came out I think I can be forgiven for that.
Thanks to everyone who tried to help me find that book, your efforts are much appreciated. Good reading to all.

Glad you found your book, Les. Thanks for the update. Here's the link - Into The Abyss (book 1 of the Demons of Astlan series) by J.L. Langland.