Alive in Necropolis

Michael Mercer sees dead people. But that’s not why he’s a morose, tongue-tied, socially-challenged young man—he’s just that way. Now that I think of it, maybe it’s the other way around: his undeveloped personal skills are the reason he can converse with ghosts.

Regardless, Mercer is the perfect cop to patrol Colma, California, the only city in America where the dead outnumber the living. As he goes about his rounds of the city’s many cemeteries, he sees things other cops don’t. Like a long-dead pyromaniac heiress with a heart of gold and a barnstorming aviator who crashes and dies with great regularity, only to crawl from the wreckage and rebuild his plane to fly again, apparently into eternity. As if those encounters show more aren’t weird enough, Mercer also goes to war with the dead, notably a criminal mastermind who awakens (or whatever the dead do) every morning to slice off his fingerprints and loot and pillage both the spirit and the real world.

Alive in Necropolis is a fun book where two worlds exist side by side. Doug Dorst does a wonderful job of making them both come alive. show less

Colma, CA has 1200 living residents and 2 million residents already dead. "No one knows for sure what (the dead) do - if they do anything but lie mute, immobile, decaying - but some of the living have their suspicions."
So starts the story of Officer Michael Mercer, Colma Badge 13. Mercer feels that his life is heading in the right direction - a new job, a new girlfriend, and now hailed a local hero for saving the life of the teenaged son (Jude) of a famous film director. However, Colma's dead have also taken an interest in Mercer because, unlike most of Colma's other residents, he is able to both see and hear them.
After Mercer receives 4 boxes of questionable incident reports from the widow of Officer Featherstone, the man he replaced show more on the Colma police force, he begins to recognize his unusual link with the dead and realize this "communication" was something he had in common with Featherstone.
Mercer soon finds himself saddled not only with Jude's case to solve, but also the pursuit of "Doc" Barker and his gang of ghostly thugs who are harassing the deceased population of Colma. The real question is, if Mercer will be able to actually defeat "Doc" Barker or if he will suffer the same fate as his predecessor, Featherstone.
On the whole, Alive in Necropolis is a wonderfully entertaining read. The author does a fantastic job of bringing all of his characters fully to life - even when they're dead. show less

How ironic it is that first time author Doug Dorst has penned the book Christopher Moore has spent ten novels trying and failing to write.

Folks, this book is GREAT. Okay, I admit to intially having been somewhat skeptical of its premise. Set primarily in and around Colma, California--site of a very small town and a much, much vaster cemetery complex--it follows rookie cop Mike Mercer as he is drawn ever deeper into an investigation of the near death of a famous director's young son, an investigation that grows to encompass not only a vast cross section of the city's populace, but many of its dead residents as well. It's something one can imagine Neil Gaiman writing, but this is no two-bit copy of that author. Alive in Necropolis is show more emphatically its own book.

Dorst's characters are, in both their strengths and failings, unapologetically real human beings, not just names and attributes typed onto the novel's pages, and I loved them for it. I had to put the book down several times because the tension whenever they found themselves in danger was unbearable. And there is some pretty serious tension in here: it's been a long time since I've encountered such a believable depiction of people's lives unraveling.

Which isn't to say that that's all there is to this novel, not at all. Alive in Necropolis contains some of the most natural, quirky, and funny dialogue I've encountered in ages. It's what Moore has been trying for and achieving only occasionally, but Dorst, who has an excellent feel for repartee and the absurd, manages it pretty much every time he tries. It's a rare book that can reduce me to belly guffaws, but this one did on scores of occasions.

Yes, it is not 100% perfect. The ending is rushed and should have taken at least another 100 pages to unfold, a disappointment only magnified by the care and attention Dorst spent building the narrative up prior to its climax. The resolutions to some of the secondary characters' story arcs were inadequate. And some of the most intriguing aspects of the story's premise (Root and the fringe religions) are woefully underdeveloped.

That said, these gripes are well worth the price of admission. In the mood for a cop story? Read this book. A supernatural thriller? Read this book. A good laugh? Read this book. A creepy psychological downward spiral? Read this book. A meditation on maturity, relationships, and the meaning of life? Read this book. Chances are you'll be torn between wanting to finish it in a single sitting and making it last as long as possible, because odds are it will be awhile before you pick up something as inventive, fun, and engrossing again. show less

Really really good. Every time I thought the plot was going to go one way it went somewhere different (well almost every time, I did predict a few turns), and the place where it went was very intense. Actually, "intense" is the single word that best fits this book. It's not scary or gruesome like many books that deal with the dead, but it will make your heart pound.

One tip for any potential readers: If you have fears of death, vivid and paralyzing fears, then it would be wise to read this book mostly during the daytime. Reading this book at night in the peacefulness of your apartment will possibly bring on crippling panic attacks. Still read it, it's a great book, but just do it on your train to work or at a buzzing coffeehouse or show more something. show less

For being a book about a guy who sees ghosts, it's a remarkably non-fantastical story. Mike's struggle to fit into his new career, to figure out his love life, and to sort out his old and new friendships is an engaging one on its own, but everything gets compounded by his new-found ability to interact with dead people. I love how the effect of reading this book is more like reading a straight-ahead novel than a supernatural thriller. It wasn't what I expected, and I enjoyed it all the more for having such a singular tone.

If you love Tim Powers, you will like this a lot. The book has great characters with very real flaws. Juxtaposed with those characters are denizens of a supernatural world that are jealous of those in the "real world". These ghosts (those who were buried in the San Francisco Cemetery Town of Colma are malicious, and fight amongst themselves as much as attending to the living. The interactions between the two worlds remind strongly of Tim Powers, and Dorst has the potential equal to the early novels of Powers. But the internal logic of this other world seem a bit vague and the interactions between the worlds is not nearly so carefully thought through as, say, Last Call or Declare. The novel feels rushed, even though it's 450 pages - but show more it's very strong for a first novel. Looking forward to his next outing. show less

This book was billed as part police procedural, part ghost story. Michael Mercer is a rookie cop in Colma, California, a city that has so many cemeteries that the dead outnumber the living by thousands to one. I want to say that I think the author shows definite potential with this book. Unfortunately it fails on a few levels. Too much time was spent overdeveloping minor characters at the expense of plot and pacing. Although the ghost characters appeared throughout, Michael’s interaction with them started way too late in the book. I was also not fond of the ending. Although the different story threads were successfully tied off, I was personally disappointed with all of the results. On the good side (and there is one), when the story show more concentrated on Michael and his job or his relationships with his friends and coworkers, it was engrossing and entertaining. And the author shows a real talent for character development and creating interesting backstories for them. show less