The Wrong Dead Guy
Written by Richard Kadrey
Narrated by Oliver Wyman
4/5
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About this audiobook
In this fast paced sequel to The Everything Box—the second entry in New York Times bestselling author Richard Kadrey’s comedic supernatural series—chaos ensues when Coop and the team at DOPS steal a not-quite-dead and very lovesick ancient Egyptian mummy wielding some terrifying magic.
Coop, a master thief sort of gone legit, saved the world from an ancient doomsday device—heroism that earned him a gig working for the Department of Peculiar Science, a fearsome top secret government agency that polices the odd and strange. Now Woolrich, Coop’s boss at the DOPS, has Coop breaking into a traveling antiquities show to steal a sarcophagus containing the mummy of a powerful Egyptian wizard named Harkhuf. With the help of his pals Morty, Giselle, and a professor that’s half-cat, half-robotic octopus, Coop pulls off the heist without a hitch.
It’s not Coop’s fault that when DOPS opened the sarcophagus they didn’t find the mummy they were expecting. Well, it was the right mummy, but it wasn’t exactly dead—and now it’s escaped, using a type of magic the organization hasn’t encountered before. Being a boss, Woolrich blames his underling for the screw up and wants Coop to find the missing Harkhuf and make it right, pronto.
Digging into Harkhuf’s history, Coop thinks the mummy is hunting for an ancient magical manuscript that will help him bring his old lover back to life.
Which wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t a warrior sorceress hell-bent on conquering the world with her undead armies.
Coop would very much like to run from the oncoming chaos. It’s one thing to steal a mummy, but another to have to deal with head-hunting bureaucrats, down-on-their luck fortune tellers, undead mailroom clerks, and a rather unimpressed elephant. Unfortunately, there’s nowhere to run. If he wants the madness to stop, he’s going to have to suck it up and play hero one more time. But if Coop manages to save the world AGAIN, he’s definitely going to want a lot of answers. And a raise.
Richard Kadrey
Richard Kadrey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim supernatural noir books. Sandman Slim was included in Amazon’s “100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime,” and is in development as a feature film. Some of his other books include The Wrong Dead Guy, The Everything Box, Metrophage, and Butcher Bird. He also writes the Vertigo comic Lucifer.
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Titles in the series (2)
The Everything Box: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wrong Dead Guy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for The Wrong Dead Guy
84 ratings11 reviews
What our readers think
Readers find this title to be a great follow-up to the first book in the series. The main character, Coop, keeps readers engaged with his antics and the multiple twists and turns in the story. However, some readers felt that this book was not as good as the first one, with a slower pace and a less satisfying climax. Overall, readers enjoy the humor and urban fantasy elements of the book, making it a worthwhile addition to their bookshelf.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A great follow up to the first book in the series "the everything box" Richard Kadry will have me waiting with anticipation for the next book in the series. The main character Coop keeps his anttics up again to save the world while multiple supernatural critters, and crooks are after him. With multiple twist and turns along the way. Like his famous Sandman Slim series this is another that will always be added to my bookshelf.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Wrong Dead Guy
by Richard Kadrey
Another Coop Heist #2
Urban Fantasy Mystery Humor
Scribd Audio
Ages 16+
Coop is a master thief with the gift of not being affected by magic. Now gone legit, he works from the Department of Peculiar Science, a top-secret government agency that hides those things regular people have no reason to know about.
Ordered by his boss, Coop, and a few friends and a chaperon, heads to a museum to obtain the mummy of a powerful Egyptian wizard named Harkhuf, but unknown to them, during their perfect heist, they woke up the mummy. Now Coop has to fix his mistake or go back to jail, or his boss will have Coop's head on his wall.
Sadly, this one was not as good as the first in the series. Yeah, there were some funnies, but I was not laughing out loud, so nobody around me thought I was insane.
I did love the odd monsters, including squids, and mice with ears, but there were other things that were so off the chart that in a way ruined the story. I also feel that all of the characters weren't described in enough detail, or any highlights of their backstories given to make the reader connect with them.
Something else that took away from the story was the two side 'filler stories' that took place inside the Department. One had something to do with Coop, and the other not really. Yeah, they were funny, but when those stories came up, it took me a while to figure out which side plot it was. There were also three other side plots outside of the department that merged a lot better with the main plot, though they also felt like filler.
Hopefully, if there's another book in the works, it will have more monster hi-jinks.
3 Stars - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The 1st one was better. This one was too long and the action didn't happen until towards the end. It was also anti-climatic
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Once upon a time, this would have been a lot more enjoyable for me, and I still found myself... almost into it at a couple of points. As pure fluff, it's just about okay, but I think I've outgrown this kind of thing.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another enjoyable caper-fantasy mashup. I'm actually looking forward to the (presumed) next in the series.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5On the surface, this looked like it would work for me, but I found the humor a bit over-wrought and ultimately more annoying than amusing. I only managed a few chapters before pulling the plug and moving on
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fairly hilarious heist story in which the loot is Harkhun, a cursed mummy who returns to life, reunites with the reanimated love of his life (Mehemet), and threatens to overturn the world with the undead thralls he reanimates from Forest Lawn Cemetery and the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. The world's unlikely saviors turn out to be the inept bureaucrats of the federal government's secretive Department of Peculiar Sciences.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is perfect for what it is, a snarky book featuring a secret government organization who is tasked with keeping the country safe from the supernatural, at whatever the cost. This is the second book in the series - but outside of few references to other events in the first book that have nothing to do with a plot, it can be read as a stand alone novel.
The book is fun, the snarkiness at times can be a bit much, but between the magical elephant, an undead mummy come back to life, a third rate museum guard, and an animal rights group, the book does zany situations like no other.
However, the book isn't for everybody. The main character is a small time crook who got caught and doing penance by working for the government. His boss has a row of human heads on his wall as a deterrent. Life is cheap in this book. However, life is treated more like a red shirt character, rather than full out murder/death, so it doesn't matter a whole lot.
The pacing is good, the story fun and manages to make the super natural protection agency trope seem new and interesting. Recommended. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5“Really, Cooper, you’re in good hands. We can’t afford any more employee homicides until the next fiscal quarter,” said Woolrich.“If you try just a little harder, I think you can be even less reassuring.”Coop is back! And this time, he’s left his days of thievery behind for a day job with the Department of Peculiar Science. He’s involved in yet another race against the clock to save the world just replace the box with a mummy and its undead army. When Coop and his team are instructed to steal a mummy from a museum, the plan, of course, does not go according to plan and Coop ends up being cursed by the newly awakened mummy, Harkhuf, they were supposed to steal. On the sidelines, Coop’s nemesis from the first installment, Nelson, is stirring up trouble at work by stealing office supplies and just being a general nuisance but is clearly leading up to something big.The Wrong Dead Guy is yet another thrilling tale of humor and sarcasm, but it felt like the subdued version of the jokes already told in The Everything Box. Coop’s wit also proved to be infectious because every major and minor character seemed to sound exactly like him, making this wide cast a bit hard to differentiate at times. The one new bizarro character that proved to be quite a laugh was Dr. Lupinsky, the deceased Egyptologist that inhabited a robotic octopus and a cat that was constantly requiring new batteries. (Because that’s what happens when you mess with the wrong sort of magic.) Which brings me to what I love most about Kadrey’s stories: they all include these outrageously preposterous tidbits that make them so uniquely him. There isn’t very much room to breath, plot-wise, because of the non-stop action so take a big deep breath before diving into this one. You won’t want to put this one down till it’s all said and done.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wrong Dead Guy is the sequel to The Everything Box by author Richard Kadrey and it is just as wild and wacky. Coop has given up his criminal ways (sorta) and has gone legit (sorta). He is still a master thief but now he does his thieving for the Department of Peculiar Sciences or DOPS. His latest assignment is to steal a mummy named Harkhuf. Unfortunately, turns out this mummy is not quite as dead as expected and his magic is as old and powerful as he is. Not only that but Harkhuf intends to bring back his lost love, a warrior queen who is even more powerful than he is, after which, together, they will create an undead army to conquer the world. Now, it’s up to Coop and friends to save the world once again.
The Wrong Dead Guy is all kinds of quirky, chaotic, and funny as well as fast and furious and I enjoyed every hilarious minute of it. It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger which means another installment and I am already in anticipation mode.
Thanks to Edelweiss and Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Coop is back and this time he has Mummy problems! If you enjoyed the first book, The Everything Box, then this is a no brainer. Great characters, laugh out loud humor, and impossible situations keeps the action moving with just a hint of a dark edge. One of the things I really enjoy about Kadrey's writing is his secondary characters. They really shine in the Sandman Slim books and they do here as well. It is possible to read this as a stand alone, but to get the full effect start with the first one. Especially since it is just as fun. Sandman Slim is still my favorite Richard Kadrey character, but Coop is fast becoming a close second.