Death Most Definite

Author: Trent Jamieson
Publisher: Orbit Books
Price: £7.99 
Availability: Out Now

Steven de Selby helps people pass from this life to the next, as members of his family have done for a long time. He does just enough to keep his position in the family business and lives a quiet and meaningless life after the end of a significant relationship. (He’s a single man with a lovely border collie named Molly).

All that changes when he spots an unusual specter whom seems to have searched him out specifically.

Someone in the hierarchy of the corporation in which Steven’s work has decided to rid the world of his kind. He doesn’t know who and he doesn’t know why. As his family members and co-workers are systematically slaughtered, Steven must take on the physical challenge of helping more spirits leave the earth, battle a legion of stirrers who inhabit the bodies of the dead, and stay alive. Aside from that, he has to grapple with his heart; he’s finally fallen in head over heels in love-with a dead girl.

Trent Jamieson’s first book in the new Death Works urban fantasy series takes death to a new, corporate level; he manages to do so tastefully. Full of dry humour and touching moments, Death Most Definite looks to be a promising series. Although the main character’s “poor little me” attitude is a bit overwhelming at times, it is certainly understandable given his circumstances. The final conflict is a bit unbelievable, but opens up a wide berth for new storylines in the series. The novel definitely offers up something new to the urban fantasy genre.