Aging baby-boomer Russell Walker wants only to retreat from the world and the shattering death of his beloved wife, into the woods of British Columbia. But the real world won't let him become a hermit. Instead, he finds himself thrust into the mystery of a series of mass murders by a monstrous sadist and serial killer who makes Hannibal Lector look like a boy scout. And he is caught in a frightening predicament: He is the only possible intermediary between a telepath called Smelly, so sensitive he can't stand to be near most people, and a sceptical police officer who needs to hear and believe what Smelly knows about the fiend. This involuntary trio may be the only ones who can catch the inhuman butcher before he kills again-if he doesn't catch them first.
Very Bad Deaths
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By Mr. A. King
Format:Audio Download|Amazon Verified Purchase
Spider Robinson is a fantastic author and a genuinely convincing narrator. This is a very good "read" and manages to combine some humour with a very deep and dark story. I cannot wait for when the sequel Very Hard Choices becomes available as an Audio book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.6 out of 5 stars
29 reviews
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Set's your spidey sense tingling.
7 Dec 2004
By J. R. BOATRIGHT
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Spider Robinson's iconoclasic view of North America from his chosen retreat in rural Canada always provides a useful distance to view the oddities of the modern world. This was clear in LifeHouse, and in his other recent non-Callihan's books.
This extends the trend once again pitting a Spider-like hero against forces beyond his ability to understand much less conquer.
It's a gripping tale, held me tight, and I read it in one setting. I only wish that the antagonist now did not live in the back of my head. I've avoided reading Hannible Lecter, or the tales of Ted Bundy, but now, Spiders take on evil is going to have residence in my head for quite a while.
It was worth it. Five starts with an asterisk. Don't leave this one lying down where your precosious ten year old will come acrossed it late at night.
This extends the trend once again pitting a Spider-like hero against forces beyond his ability to understand much less conquer.
It's a gripping tale, held me tight, and I read it in one setting. I only wish that the antagonist now did not live in the back of my head. I've avoided reading Hannible Lecter, or the tales of Ted Bundy, but now, Spiders take on evil is going to have residence in my head for quite a while.
It was worth it. Five starts with an asterisk. Don't leave this one lying down where your precosious ten year old will come acrossed it late at night.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quirky entertainment
20 Jan 2005
By C. Baker
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Very Bad Deaths is quirky and entertaining. We meet some very unusual people in this adventure.
It all starts when an old college roommate knocks on Russell Walker's door in the middle of the night. Poor Russell is a recent widower and columnist for a Toronto newspaper and not feeling too good about the world at the moment. This knock on the door in the middle of the night and the request for help by his old college roommate, Zandor Zudenigo, aka Smelly, jumpstarts Russell, reluctantly, back to action. Now Zandor is a very, very strange character and happens to know that a man named Allen plans to kidnap and kill an innocent family in a very painful and horrible manner. Allen is the worst kind of sadist imaginable and Russell feels he has no choice to help stop this monster. The problem is - Zandor can't go to the police himself, for reasons you'll find in the book. So Russell must do it for him. Fortuitously and by happenstance Russell runs into Constable Nika Mandic (both literally and figuratively), a Vancouver cop whose career is stalled. I don't want to give away too much of the plot - but Russell has a lot of work to do to convince Nika that his request is legitimate and he's not some nut, another fun part of the story. But eventually the chase is on as this odd troika sets off to find Allen and put an end to his heinous plans.
This is a very quirky and entertaining novel and is as much about the characters and their personal plights as it is an adventure story. It's a real page turner from beginning to end and is hard to put down. Definitely a thumbs up.
It all starts when an old college roommate knocks on Russell Walker's door in the middle of the night. Poor Russell is a recent widower and columnist for a Toronto newspaper and not feeling too good about the world at the moment. This knock on the door in the middle of the night and the request for help by his old college roommate, Zandor Zudenigo, aka Smelly, jumpstarts Russell, reluctantly, back to action. Now Zandor is a very, very strange character and happens to know that a man named Allen plans to kidnap and kill an innocent family in a very painful and horrible manner. Allen is the worst kind of sadist imaginable and Russell feels he has no choice to help stop this monster. The problem is - Zandor can't go to the police himself, for reasons you'll find in the book. So Russell must do it for him. Fortuitously and by happenstance Russell runs into Constable Nika Mandic (both literally and figuratively), a Vancouver cop whose career is stalled. I don't want to give away too much of the plot - but Russell has a lot of work to do to convince Nika that his request is legitimate and he's not some nut, another fun part of the story. But eventually the chase is on as this odd troika sets off to find Allen and put an end to his heinous plans.
This is a very quirky and entertaining novel and is as much about the characters and their personal plights as it is an adventure story. It's a real page turner from beginning to end and is hard to put down. Definitely a thumbs up.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Who needs Callahan? Spider becomes mystery writer
23 Sep 2005
By Mark Gilbert
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Like a rock band tired of doing their old songs and wanting you to hear something new, Spider is weary of Mike Callahan and I think he's always wanted to be a detective writer anyway. There are many hints in this book that it is the first of a series. It is a fast read and very enjoyable. It is sparse - not as many characters are developed as in Lady Slings The Booze but it's set in Canada so fewer characters seems appropriate. I didn't notice any political statements . If you're so tightly wound you think a main character who smokes pot and criticizes Bush once or twice in the whole novel is politically extreme, please...Sherlock Holmes did coke (Subcutaneously, My Dear Watson) and how could you be a Canadian (or sentient, for that matter) and not bash Bush? I loved the flashbacks to the sixties when the main character was in college. There's Stinky, the telepath who cultivates his bad odor to keep people away. And Bunny, who...no, you'll want to discover Bunny yourself. Thanks, Spider. Please keep writing. If you could write a novel each week, I'd appreciate it. I loved the Callahan stories, but this new set of characters has great potential, too. And like a rock star, I think Spider will eventually revisit Callahan's so don't give up on that. He just needs a break. By the way, if you ever suspect one of Spider's characters might be real, I assure you it can be true. I met one of the characters from Callahan's Key - he lives here on South Padre Island and is as delightful in person as his cameo in the book.
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3.6 out of 5 stars
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