Lori Duff Writes

Secondhand Souls: A Novel by Christopher Moore

I have a confession to make: I love Christopher Moore. I make this by way of confession rather than simply a statement of opinion because he makes more penis jokes than someone of my pretend stature and education ought to approve of. He’s often crude, often blasphemous, but always creative and funny and original. And smart and well read – for someone who seems so obsessed with his manparts, Moore is well read and erudite and clever. No one is like Christopher Moore.

Secondhand Souls is a follow up to A Dirty Job, which came out way back in 2009. In A Dirty Job, Charlie Asher and his newborn daughter Sophie find themselves as unwilling merchants of death, with only “The Big Book of Death” and Charlie’s creepy goth teenage employee, Lily, aka “Darquewillow Elventhing,” and a seven foot tall record shop owner named Minty Fresh who dresses all in green to help them figure out what to do.

Secondhand Souls follows up in the aftermath of the events of A Dirty Job, pitting Minty Fresh against his cousin, Lemon Fresh, the return of the Hellhounds (called “French Hellhounds” because if you say it that way then other people say, “Oh, my cousin has one of those” instead of “AAAAAAHHHHHHHH HELLHOUNDS!”), a Buddhist nun, and a bridge painter. I really don’t know how to describe the events that take place without spoilers. I would suggest reading A Dirty Job before this book – I’m not sure how the events would make sense if you don’t have the background. Not that they make a whole lot of sense if you do have the background, but that’s part of the fun. The fast paced, absurdist nature of the whole thing is kind of the point.  Plus some food for thought about life, death, and the meaning thereof.

I’m not sure what my point is. But I liked the book. Click below for a handy-dandy Amazon link, plus links to “A Dirty Job.”

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Lori Duff

Lori B. Duff is an award-winning author who practices law on the side.  Her latest book, “If You Did What I Asked in the First Place” was awarded the Gold Medal for humor in the Foreword INDIES awards in 2019. You can follow her on Twitter at @LoriBDuff and on Facebook. For more blogs written by Lori, click here. For more information about Lori in general, click here. If you want Lori to do your writing for you, click here. If you want Lori to help you market your book, click here.