A Dirty Job

By: Christopher Moore

Narrated by: Fisher Stevens

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)

Super fun

Super fun. Witty and funny dialogue between characters. A great ‘light escape’ book for every day.

Great Book, with one small personal issue

the book itself and the story are great and definitely very entertaining. The narration especially was great and made the book much more fun to listen to than read. Although, there is one part where one of the hell hound dogs is named
"Muhammed" that I personally (as a Muslim named Muhammed) just took me out of the book a bit. The premise of the joke based on the name was okay I suppose, I just felt personally that maybe it wasn't worth doing in the first place considering the pay off to the plot was inconsequential? Either way, very entreating and original book.

Enjoyable

An enjoyable listen. Very different. Narrator was good as well. Not a lot of range but still will done. Not sure about the musical interludes. But eventually I got used to them.

what a crazy ride!

The ultimate Christopher Moore.
Humor, paranoia and snark in a story of Charlie Asher who finds out he has been transformed into a Death Merchant (Collector) who has to locate a soul object that holds the soul of each of the dying. In between he raises his daughter, deals with oddball characters on every front and tries to master his new skills.
What were the recording producers thinking to add the truly obnoxious music at the beginning which runs over the dialogue????
Stevens does an ok job of narration but doesn’t add to the production.

My favorite book

I love this book and have read it a few times. But reading it isn't near as fun as listening to Fisher Stevens portray all the characters so vividly. This book is a bit twisted, but it's just so much fun! I still laugh out loud at lines that I know are coming!

Morning traffic looks

Oh, the looks you get sitting in traffic and laughing out loud. It makes the great story so much more fun.

Loved the characters and the story. Well done and worth a listen.

Fantastic listen!

Narrator was amazing and the story had me laughing aloud! This purchase was money very well spent!

annoying music

Story is okay. Reader is pretty good. Music that plays on occasion is extremely annoying.

Meh.

Some parts were promising but then lots of parts I felt like I was just slogging through. Some parts were pretty funny though.

Good book! Fun for a commute.

I read all of Christopher Moore's books when I was younger and really loved them. This time around I enjoyed the book but I found some elements a bit juvenile, like the obsession with boobs and the concept of the "beta male". Still a good read, just know what you are getting.