Dead Jack and the Pandemonium Device – James Aquilone

Published: 23 January 2018
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press 
Pages: 211
Series: Dead Jack #1
Format Read: Audible
Duration: 5h 2mins

Blurp:

Dead Jack and the Pandemonium Device kicks off a wild and irreverent fantasy / horror series following the exploits of a zombie detective and his homunculus frenemy. In the fast-paced novel, the drug-addicted zombie detective and his shapeshifting sidekick battle and outsmart supernatural creatures, from tough-guy leprechauns to sex-obsessed shark women and insane bat gods, in a hellish, alternate New York City of the 1940s.

Thoughts:

While only opening the GoodReads site to copy paste the blurp I found out that this is going to be adapted for TV/Film. What a weird film this is going to be…

I got this for free on Audible and thought I would give it a go as I have been looking into maybe picking up the Skulduggery Pleasant series sometime. Where that is potentially about a Skelenton Detetive, Dead Jack is a zombie with a weak for Fairy Dust. Some form of drug that keeps his huger for flesh away for a while. To say the guy has a suicidal addiction to it is a bit of an understatement as the guy is already dead. This novel was just good old wacky weird fun. It kinda reminded me of Wormwood that I read a while ago, but where Wormwood was a zombie controlled by some Tequila Demon Worm, Jack had his own brain (what was left of it anyhow) as well as his side kick Oswell that took residence in his head. Oswell was quite a funny character that came of as a little whiney, but for all the right reasons, Jack has nearly no aim or consious decision making protocol and just does what he feels is right, let’s face it, being a zombie and not having a concious hardly seems right in any case… The two are going on a mission to save some cats that have gone missing. First Jack declines, but soon as he finds out that his potential client is a fabricator of the purest Fairy Dust out there and is offering Jack a lifetime supply of the stuff. Jack decides to rethink his choise and takes the offer with both hands and what little fingers he has left (what harm could there be in looking for some pussies right?)

Do not be put of by the sex obsessed shark women too much, there was only the one and there was no sex happening in this novel. I am not sure what kind of kink that would even be cassed as if it happened. Aaaanyway… I had fun at work while some one else read this to me and I was not too phased by the copious amounts of swearing that happened from time to time, especially where the Irish Fairies were concerned. There was some nice wordplays going on from time to time and I could see that not everone will enjoy this kind of thing. At least there was no toilet humor going on. I took it for what it was and just enjoyed it as it was going on. GoodReads got a 3 out of 5 for this one from me. If you like your quirky, weird zombie gone detective genre, give this a go.