DEATH MOST DEFINITE Review

DEATH MOST DEFINITE

A Death Works Novel


Trent Jamieson


Published AUGUST 2010 by Orbit $19.99

Publisher web page http://www.hachette.com.au/books/9780733624834.html


‘Trent Jamieson may just be the hottest literary talent to come out of Queensland recently..... It’s Jim Butcher meets Holly Black: bleak, funny and mysterious with a pulsing vein of tragic romance’ - Courier Mail

Debut Australian urban fantasy author, published simultaneously by Orbit worldwide

Living in Brisbane can be hell...

Steve knew something was wrong as soon as he saw the dead girl in the Wintergarden food court. Nothing new, he saw dead people all the time, but this one was about to save his life...

“The book came to me in a flash. A guy looking across a crowded food court and having a love at first sight moment with a girl. Then I realised she was dead and telling him to run. After that I spent the rest of the first draft trying to work out the hows and whys.

I really wanted to capture Brisbane in this book, the urban spaces, the winding river, the coffee, and the light. Mostly it comes from having lived here for the past decade. This is my book about Brisbane, my favourite city. I hope I’ve done it justice.”

Steve is a necromancer in the family firm, tasked with easing spirits from this dimension to the next after death. And he’s kind of OK with that, until someone high up the corporate hierarchy makes a bid to be Australia’s new Regional Death. This means killing all of the current Death’s staff. After his parents, relatives and pretty much every other necromancer he ever knew has been killed, Steve is left to make a reluctant stand.

Trent Jamieson has had more than sixty short stories published over the last decade, and, in 2005, won an Aurealis award for his story “Slow and Ache”. His most recent stories have appeared in Cosmos Magazine, Zahir, Murky Depths and Jack Dann's anthology Dreaming Again. His collection Reserved for Travelling Shows was released in 2006. He won the 2008 Aurealis Award for best YA short story with his story “Cracks”. Trent was fiction editor of Redsine Magazine, and worked for Prime Books on Kirsten Bishop's multi-award winning novel The Etched City. He’s a seasonal academic at QUT teaching creative writing, and has taught at Clarion South. Trent has a fondness for New Zealand beer, and gloomy music and lives in Brisbane with his wife, Diana. Visit www.trentjamieson.com

Review

This would have to be one of the best books I’ve read in a while. Trent drew me in with the local setting of Brissie, and in particular the opening scene in the Wintergarden. My first job was in the Wintergarden, so I could visualize the setting and picture every scene Trent described.

I loved the profession of a Pomp, created by Trent in this novel, a kind of doorway for ghosts to pass to the next life. The characters in this first book in what is going to be an exciting series were well crafted and easy to relate to.

The way the organization of supernatural pomps has been added to the business world of the CBD like it was just another corporation, such as a bank or law firm – nothing different or strange to think twice about. The Aussie setting was very refreshing to read, with local watering holes such as the Paddo, scattered throughout the book; as were local delicacies such as Chicko Rolls. If you have ever lived in Brisbane, you will love this story.

With a faced pace narrative, I finished this novel in a couple of day and was left waiting for the next book to find out more. Can’t wait.

Make sure you check out the interview with Trent at the Australian Horror Writer’s Association web here; http://www.australianhorror.com/index.php?view=238