The Wrong Dead Guy proves Richard Kadrey to be a comic genius..or an alien
The Wrong Dead Guy
Richard Kadrey
Pub Date: February 28, 2017
Fiction / Fantasy
Review
The Wrong Dead Guy is utterly hilarious. I don't know whether Richard Kadrey is an alien or merely a genius. Who else would think of such an amazing assortment of hijinks and heists? Captivated from the start, I wavered between laughing out loud and gaping in incredulity. What starts as the simple theft of a mummy leads to a cascade of bizarre activity. From invading a museum dressed as clowns to stealing a library by turning it into an elephant, Coop does what is necessary to save his own skin and save the world. After all, it just wouldn't do to let a 3000 year old mummy take over the world.
To give you an example of the weird and wonderful things you will find in The Wrong Dead Guy, I've made a short list.
A pocket sized elder god
An undead mailroom manager intent on revenge and world domination through control of the mail
A mummy reawakened by mustard from a hamburger and his newspaper craving thrall
A car salesman/cowboy/con with a penchant for guns and making commercials with exotic animals
Two washed up psychics in search of a comeback and a talk show
Mice with ears on their back and a set of not so bright animal rights revolutionaries
A menagerie of monsters, ghosts, and miscellaneous bizarre beings
For cat lovers like me - A scientist cat ghost in a television on eight robotic legs, and a girlfriend intent on adding a feline member of the family
It isn't easy being a thief working for the Department of Peculiar Sciences, especially if you want to stay alive and not end up a mail room mook.
I loved this novel, and the ending - magnificent! If you like comedic science fiction, Richard Kadrey can't be beat.
5/5
I received a copy of The Wrong Dead Guy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
--Crittermom
Description
In this fast paced sequel to The Everything Box—the second entry in Richard Kadrey’s comedic supernatural series—chaos ensues when Coop and the team at DOPS steal a not- quite-dead and very lovesick ancient Egyptian mummy wielding some terrifying magic
Coop, a master thief sort of gone legit, saved the world from an ancient doomsday device—heroism that earned him a gig working for the Department of Peculiar Science, a fearsome top secret government agency that polices the odd and strange. Now Woolrich, Coop’s boss at the DOPS, has Coop breaking into a traveling antiquities show to steal a sarcophagus containing the mummy of a powerful Egyptian wizard named Harkhuf. With the help of his pals Morty, Giselle, and a professor that’s half-cat, half-robotic octopus, Coop pulls off the heist without a hitch.
It’s not Coop’s fault that when DOPS opened the sarcophagus they didn’t find the mummy they were expecting. Well, it was the right mummy, but it wasn’t exactly dead—and now it’s escaped, using a type of magic the organization hasn’t encountered before. Being a boss, Woolrich blames his underling for the screw up and wants Coop to find the missing Harkhuf and make it right, pronto.
Digging into Harkhuf’s history, Coop thinks the mummy is hunting for an ancient magical manuscript that will help him bring his old lover back to life.
Which wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t a warrior sorceress hell-bent on conquering the world with her undead armies.
Coop would very much like to run from the oncoming chaos. It’s one thing to steal a mummy, but another to have to deal with head-hunting bureaucrats, down-on-their luck fortune tellers, undead mailroom clerks, and a rather unimpressed elephant. Unfortunately, there’s nowhere to run. If he wants the madness to stop, he’s going to have to suck it up and play hero one more time. But if Coop manages to save the world AGAIN, he’s definitely going to want a lot of answers. And a raise.
