A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore: Charlie Asher is a pretty regular guy until the birth of his daughter and death of his wife. Then strange things begin to happen. Suddenly his life revolves around sewer harpies, hellhounds, and soul vessels. I’ve found Moore to be hit or miss (mostly miss), but this was pretty consistently funny, especially considering it dealt so much with grief and loss. I liked several of the characters, such as Jane and Lily, but the whole thing started to fall apart near the end, when Audrey and the squirrel people started showing up. It felt more like a scramble to tie up loose ends than anything planned in advance, as if the whole thing had been written off the cuff in response to some sort of random prompt, which is a complaint I’ve had about Moore in the past. All in all, it was a decently funny story, just not a very polished novel.
Also posted on BookCrossing.