A Dirty Job

By: Christopher Moore

Narrated by: Fisher Stevens

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy. A little hapless, somewhat neurotic, sort of a hypochondriac. He's what's known as a Beta Male: the kind of fellow who makes his way through life by being careful and constant, you know, the one who's always there to pick up the pieces when the girl gets dumped by the bigger/taller/stronger Alpha Male.

But Charlie's been lucky. He owns a building in the heart of San Francisco, and runs a secondhand store with the help of a couple of loyal, if marginally insane, employees. He's married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. And she, Rachel, is about to have their first child.

Yes, Charlie's doing okay for a Beta. That is, until the day his daughter, Sophie, is born. Just as Charlie, exhausted from the birth, turns to go home, he sees a strange man in mint-green golf wear at Rachel's hospital bedside, a man who claims that no one should be able to see him. But see him Charlie does, and from here on out, things get really weird.

People start dropping dead around him, giant ravens perch on his building, and it seems that everywhere he goes, a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Strange names start appearing on his nightstand notepad, and before he knows it, those people end up dead, too. Yup, it seems that Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job, an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death. It's a dirty job. But hey, somebody's gotta do it.

©2006 Christopher Moore (P)2006 HarperCollinsPublishers

Critic reviews

• 2006 Quill Award Nominee

"Moore's enthusiasm and skill make it convincing, and his affection for the cast of weirdos gives the book an unexpected poignancy." (Publishers Weekly)

Language Language Language

I'm not a prude but although this was a cute story the language hurt my ears. If you've become totally desensitized to fowl language you'll enjoy the listen.

Laughed out loud

I was looking for something light and entertaining, and this fit the bill perfectly. The story is different, and the author writes with a great tone. Some scenes are simply laugh out loud funny. Highly recommend this.

I loved everything about this book!

This book is to funniest book I've ever listened too (and I've listened to a lot!) and I am now a die hard Christopher Moore fan. More than once I embarrassed myself in public by laughing and snorting out loud while listening on my ipod.

It's also not a great idea to drive, drink coffee and listen to this book because it will make coffee shoot out of your nose while you're trying not to choke from laughter.

Seriously, I loved this book, the characters, the narration, and the story. It was fantastic!

Watch your language

If you do not mind the use of profanity--a lot of profanity--this is a funny, interesting book. I was put off slightly by the over use of one particular word, but for some reason it often worked well in the storyline. While the storyline is truly outrageous, I like the idea of Santa's helpers for Death. I laughed out loud often.

The reader's pacing makes me want to punch kittens

How could the performance have been better?

The story probably would have been more enjoyable but the reader's pacing felt uneven and made me really not enjoy this book.

Squeeee!! OMG y’all!

I LOVED LOVED ❤️ this book! The narrator is great at the different voices and they make the characters so much more real and give them an actual face in your mind. I have never laughed out loud so many times reading and listening to a book. I see reviews and read the same books that make other LOL but this finally had me LOLing and a lot. The snarkiness of Charlie, Lily, Ray, Jane, and Minty Fresh. Omgoodness it’s a great story that I haven’t seen or heard of before, even though it’s a popular topic. It’s dealing with death and The Reaper. Set in San Francisco which I’ve never visited but I felt I was walking down the street with these guys. I felt if I went to visit the neighborhoods I could recognize them by the descriptions, so that’s kind of cool to feel a real part of the story. I hated the beginning but it had to happen. It’s the entire work up to the real story. Jane, Charlie’s sister, is hilarious when around Charlie and some of the conversations...the camel toe one for instance....I’m not looking, I’m not looking. I had to pause the audio book for a minute to compose myself. The whole who’s your daddy thing with Rachel made me spit my drink out! A whole week!! LMBO! It’s a great read and I hope it not like a lot of other books that the first one you read of an author is the best and the rest just never ever compare, because honestly, I’ve bought so many kindle books lately and just can’t finish them. They start off so good and then just bore me to pieces. This one had me pacing myself so I wouldn’t finish it to fast because I wanted to not end yet. When did end...man I really didn’t see it coming. I’m so glad he found Audrey and I hope Audrey stays in Sophie’s life. I highly recommend this book if it’s even just for a mind numbing nothing but a good laugh for you to relax and escape the stress of the day, but hope it’s more than that for you. I’m sure you can find something in it you will LOL at so that’s worth the price alone in my opinion. It did make me want to become, A Purveyor of Fine Vintage Clothing and Accessories. That has to be the coolest job title and business card I’ve heard of in a long time.

a wacky suspense ride

This is the second book I have listened to by Moore. He is genuinely original and funny. I only wish he had enough confidence in his humor to leave the profanity behind, or at least tone it down. (It reminds me of stand-up comedians who feel the need to fill their acts with profanity to "be" funny.) This book brings Moore's offbeat humor to a suspense novel. Although it doesn't take much imagination to see how the story ends, its a blast getting to it. If you can tolerate the profanity, I say you will find this a fun ride. There wasn't a moment when the story dragged or bumped.
The reader makes Moore's books come alive. I can't imagine these books read by someone else. He captures the quirkiness in the characterizations and in his narrative reading.
I just bought Fluke and can't wait to get to it.

Had to run it a three-quarter speed!

The narration on this book was really off, and the pace usually too fast. I actually had to run this book at 0.75x speed in order to get the narration and most of the characters to sound almost normal - unfortunately it made one character sound a little too slow, and my reaction was that he was a little stupid. Too bad, but it allowed me to actually enjoy the enjoyable, irreverent, and occasionally outright hilarious writing.

This is my first introduction to Christopher Moore, and I'm very pleased a friend recommended him (and this book) to me. I'll avoid Fisher Stevens as a narrator of his books though.....I've listened to Stevens narrate other books and they didn't suffer from the same pacing and speed issues as this one did. Perhaps the narrator of the Moore book has a different expectation (of good quality narration) than I do, but I won't try that again.

Delightfully macabre and humorous!

This is the first book by Christopher Moore I have enjoyed. I was seriously laughing out loud as I was listening in my car. Fisher Stevens did a wonderful job narrating. It still amazes me how the narrators can maintain all of the different voices throughout the story and never waver from them. Stevens does this beautifully. Overall I would highly recommend this book whether you listen or read it will be wonderful.

Funny, fantastic performance

Offbeat and funny light diversion, my new favorite reader. Definitely recommended and worth a credit.