It’s been a while since I read the precursor to this book (A Dirty Job) – it’s on my 2007 reading list, but I read it before I actually started the blog that year. So I definitely had to get back into the world of this story, which took a few chapters.
Charlie Asher was a Death Dealer – the people that collect soul vessels, and pass them along to others by selling them those objects. He was a single father, and in the course of the last book, discovered that his daughter Sophie is actually the Illuminatus – the Big Death – who will grow up to rule the Underworld and have Dominion over Death (there should be a tm after that statement). Sadly, in the last book, Charlie died saving everyone from the Morrigan – the Celtic triple War Goddess.
His girlfriend Audrey (a Buddhist nun), managed to shove his soul into a little figure made up of lunch meat, but you can’t exactly raise your daughter in such a state, so Sophie’s off with her aunts. Life has sort of gone back to normal in the meantime, until suddenly, Sophie’s hellhound guardians disappear, and there are around 1000 ghosts hanging out at the Golden Gate Bridge. Charlie suddenly has an urgent need to get a real body back.
At this point, the whole crew’s back – Minty Fresh, Lily, and Inspector Rivera – with a few new faces (Minty’s cousin Lemon, for instance). Someone’s not been collecting souls, and bad things are shortly going to start happening.
Sophie is still the vulgarest seven-year old you’ll ever run into, and her friends and family are a collection of lovable oddballs. This book probably isn’t for everyone, but if you like madcap save the world adventures, you’ll like this book.