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)

Side Splitting Hilarity

Real comedy comes from creating characters who are inherently quirky and putting them in hilarious situations. The funniest book I’ve heard or read in ages. I’m a fan forever!!

Lots of fun

Humor like Carl Hiassen. Story did not seem as tight or as well written as Hiassen, but very entertaining. Excellent reader.

Hilarious

Loved it. Fisher Stevens performance was great. It was also laugh out loud hilarious.

Hilarious! Love this book.

Best listen in a long time. Suggest it to anyone who needs a great laugh.

best of the best

one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. great performance by Fisher Stevens.

Brilliant, Hillarious, Profane and Just Plain Fun!

I finished A Dirty Job today and it was worth every bit of the credit I used for it. I had a 6 hour drive one way and am surprised that there wasn't a road block ahead to catch "the crazy lady laughing hysterically with no one else in the car" I bow to Christopher Moore's storytelling and wonderful characters. I bow even lower to Fisher Steven's narration, which made this book just about the best I ever listened to. Why has this man only narrated THREE novels??? He's just fantastic.

A Dirty Job got me through nearly 11 hours of driving on boring interstate and I didn't even notice being stuck in construction gridlock. I was thrilled to just listen, guffaw, and occasionally yell in triumph as Charlie, Sophie, Minty Fresh and others conquer the underworld!

Note: If you have a problem with profanity, this book may not be as enjoyable for you. There is a fair amount of it, but I found it added to the humor.

Conflicted

I truly hate the narration, but I love this book. The narrator makes half of the characters sound like stoner-surfer-dude-bros, which none of them are. I have a lot of love for this book and for Christopher Moore, and have read it twice in the past so I thought getting the audiobook would be a no-brainer. I ended up really having to work at tolerating the *incredibly* irritating narrator. I’d recommend reading this one the old fashioned way — but would 100% re-buy for a decent narrator.

Different and Funny

This is differant from what I'm used to reading but it kept me interested till the very end. The narrirator did a great job bringing the story alive.

Hilarious!!

When you have characters with names like "Minty Fresh" you can't go wrong! Fisher Stevens is amazing!!

Witty, Funny, Entertaining and great characters

Any additional comments?

Chris Moore's casual, engaging writing style, great characters and Fisher Steven's narration create an incredibly entertaining combination. This was my first intro to Moore's work and I'm already 5 books deep in after just a few weeks. If that's not an indicator of what I think of his work, I'm not sure what is.