Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I.: Double-Booked Review

Let’s not beat around the bush here, we all know I’m an easy mark for a Shamble story, so of course I loved it.
But let’s step back a bit and look at this objectively, does it move the ball forward in expanding and building on the stories that came before?
And how does it stack up against the other 5 novels?
Grab your fedora and morticians putty, it’s time to find out!

Here is your comedically spooky, yet still super serious and official, ***SPOILER ALERT***

After the spectacular shit show of the last two years, you can bet your ass that it is so good to be back in the Unnatural Quarter.
Where entire neighborhoods go missing and then reappear a bit…odder, rogue werewolf ex-cops write painstakingly detailed memoirs, a new edition of the Necronomicon is being printed, protesters that want the pre-Big Uneasy Good Old Days brought back, and, to put the icing on the cake, car trouble rears its ugly head!
Ah, normalcy at its finest.

We’ve got a lot going on here, gang, though I think this may be one of the most relaxed Shamble novel in some ways, and it may also be the shortest.
One of the main plot threads revolves around reversing the Big Uneasy, which is welcome after the last one was so chill and personal, but I don’t think the threat or fallout of that is really played up until the very end when Dan sees the potential for it first hand.
That’s a bit of a bummer, but I think I understand the reason behind it.

Because, you see, this book does something that none of the other 5 did, and I secretly wanted it.
Between Dan & the virgin librarian that caused the Big Uneasy, we head back to the night the world changed and see first hand what that was like for Dan.
After I read the first novel, Death Warmed Over, and we got the gritty details about how Dan was murdered and the night he returned from the grave, I was curious about the personal stories of Dan & co from the night the Big Uneasy kicked off and brought all monsters and fantasy creatures to life.
It’s a great look at this dude when he’s put in a hell of a position.

Now, in my review for Book 5, Tastes Like Chicken, I talked about the new Vampire character, Alvina.
Going into this book I was probably most interested in where she was going.
Once again, she had a good introduction last time, but once again she has the potential to be Cousin Oliver or Seven, a new kid on the block that you wish would get lost finding the address.
But Anderson doesn’t let her turn into a useless pain in the ass that’s just there to be cute or some nonsense.
No, she actually serves a purpose that, going forward, may be a hell of a boon for the Chambeaux & Deyer team.
He leans heavily into her love of branding/marketing, and I could see that being beneficial for Robin if a tough case crosses her desk and she needs to get the word out quick to garner support for a client.
But I can also see her doing more of what she does in this novel, working in PR for Howard Phillips Publishing.
I think after this outting my worrying about her is done, this kid has a bright future in this series.

A highlight for me in these books is the focus on world building and continuity.
I love that characters like Alma & Mavis Wannovich, Hairy Harry, and Linda Bullwer make return visits.
It gives the world a depth and a feeling of conntectivity that I love.
For example, I loved Smallville, but it would bug the shit out of me how they would intro a character in Season 4, without any prior mention, and act like this character was one of the most important people in Chloe & Clark’s lives.
Thankfully, you get none of that here.
And that’s not to say new characters aren’t introduced, we have a local TV host Dick The Head (don’t forget the The!), a new auto mechanic and crew, a new group of Unnatural haters called The Olde Tymers, as well as finally meeting the virgin librarian Stella Artois.
It’s a packed cast of colorful characters for sure, and it works in the long term favor of the series.

Something I want to point out real quick is that KJA infuses a great subtle allegorical undertone to all of these books.
It’s never finger waggy, preachy, or in your face, and I don’t know that he would ever admit to it, and he really doesn’t need to, but it’s there.
I think you can get a good look at how he views the world though.

Gang, there’s a lot of fun to be had in this series, and they work as legitimate mysteries too.
Even if you figure some things out before Dan does, you still have the fun of trying to figure out why the baddies do what they do. There is so fucking much I love about this series and I think that I could go on for hours talking about it.
But I will spare you all that and just say this: you need to read them all for yourself.
I don’t care how, you just need to read them.
Anderson writes quick, snappy, easily digestable chapters, solid and well defined characters, he has a good voice for parody and satire.
I’ve long said this series feel like a mixture of The Addams Family & The Rockford Files, and that still rings true 6 novels and 2 short story collections deep, and it feels like so much more could be mixed in as well.
Kevin J. Anderson likes to act like this series is just a slapdick, jokey, fun time, but he has clearly put a ton of work, love, and passion into these stories.
My only complaint, once again, is that it’s just too short and goes by far too fast, I really wish there were at least 30 pages more.
But all in all, not bad for the first Kickstarter I’ve jumped in on.

I have to say with great sadness that, once again, my time in the Unnatural Quarter has come to an end, at least for now.
It’s funny, I’ve talked a lot lately about how I’m really bummed that for the first time in over 20 years we don’t have a new Scooby Direct-To-Video movie to look forward to.
But I think I’m just as sad finishing this book because I don’t know when the next Shamble book is coming, I don’t know when I’ll get to hang out with Dan, McGoo, Sheyenne, Robin, Alvina, or anybody else in the UQ again.
I sincerely hope it’s not another 5 year wait.

Double-Booked will be available from Wordfire Press in November.

Special thanks to @ACFerrell1976 for her continued editorial assistance.

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And finally, given the state of the world, do what you can to leave it a little bit better than you found it.
As difficult as that may be currently, it can have an impact far greater than you know.
Until next time, stay safe out there, gang.