Death Eternal by Richard Amos

Narrated by Cooper North

Death Eternal is the first (of four) book in Richard Amos’ Necromancer Rising series featuring Marcel August, a half-French, half-English twenty-something necromancer based in London. That, right there, is one of the reasons I picked it up – it’s unusual to find this type of story set in England – and I liked the idea of Death himself as a love interest. Plus – Cooper North. Nuff Sed.

The starting point for this story is that, twenty years earlier and for some unknown reason, Death “walked off the job and disappeared”, leaving necromancers like Marcel to take up the slack. Without Death around, the spirits of the dead are unable to move on and it’s the job of the necromancers to both police the ghosts and make sure they don’t get up to any mischief that can damage the world of the living, and to guide them to sanctuary whenever they can. When the story begins, Marcel and his long-time partner Jenn have been sent to Baker Street tube station to deal with the spirit of a woman who was killed there a week earlier, and who is now, as Marcel puts it “using her kinetic ghostly energy to fuck shit up.” But what should have been a fairly straightforward job goes rapidly south leaving Jenn seriously injured and Marcel sent away from London, to the small West-Country village of Oakthorne.

Marcel has just driven into the village when a ghost – who later introduces herself as Louise – jumps out in front of his car. She tells Marcel she’s found the body of a man called Harry in a nearby cave, but that his ghost is missing. Suspicious, Marcel decides to call his new boss to alert him to potential trouble, but before he can do so, a zombie staggers into view, followed by a rogue necromancer who uses both zombie and ghost to overpower Marcel and take him down into one of the caves where she plans to use his blood to power a spell. The last thing Marcel remembers is hearing a deep male voice, the sound of a body hitting the ground and the scent of sandalwood as he’s lifted into the air.

Marcel wakes up to find himself in a hospital bed with his rescuer – who introduces himself as Death – sitting by by his bedside. Marcel is confused – how can this gorgeous man possibly be Death? What was he doing at the caves? Why did he just abandon his responsibilities? Death deflects the questions and turns to leave, instructing Marcel not to say anything about him and telling him they won’t see each other again.

So the last thing Marcel expects the next evening is for Death to show up at his new flat saying he’s come to check on him. Marcel doesn’t really buy it, but he doesn’t really care; the guy is hotness personified and when Death says he wants to get to know him better because Marcel intrigues him… well, Marcel is very much on board with that idea.

But here’s where the story starts to go off the rails a bit. Death offers to help Marcel find out what happened to Harry’s ghost and find his killer, although he once again insists on complete secrecy, meaning that Marcel has to lie to his new boss – which is a bit of a shitty position to put him in. And for an ancient, immortal being, Death does some pretty dumb stuff.

So I finished the listen with mixed feelings. Most of the story is told from Marcel’s perspective, but there are a few chapters from Death’s PoV, and in them it’s clear that he’s more than merely “intrigued” by Marcel and that there’s more going on than we’re privy to. But his first chapter – seven – has him mooning over Marcel’s sapphire blue eyes and over how he longs for him, and it feels so much like overblown, flowery insta-lust that it made me roll my eyes rather than swoon. The narration is, of course, terrific, and I enjoyed the story and the worldbuilding – the mystery plot is interesting and the final twist is a real kicker. But Death, as a character, is seriously underdeveloped and while Marcel is more likeable – and I appreciated that he has a normal, loving family, because it made a nice change from family dysfunction and/or angst – he’s still a little bland. I did like that he knits as a hobby, though. The biggest problem, however, is the lacklustre romance; lots of mental lusting and a few sex scenes don’t make up for the lack of chemistry and emotional connection between Marcel and Death. The reveal at the end does explain some of the character choices (although it makes Death seem like a hormonally challenged teen rather than an ancient being), but it’s too little too late to make the romance convincing, and I wish the author had found some way to lead up to it that would have made it feel less like insta-lust.

With huge apologies to the very talented Cooper North, I have an admission to make. Although I knew this was a UK-set book from a UK-based author, I must have forgotten those things between requesting it for review and actually listening to it, because when the opening “Tantor Audio, a division of Recorded Books…” announcement was spoken in an impeccable English accent, I actually thought that maybe I was listening to the wrong book! It’s not the first time I’ve heard Mr. North using an English accent, but I’m so used to his “normal” American one that it threw me for a few seconds!

Maybe that’s the best/worst backhanded compliment I can pay him? :P

Anyway. Cooper North delivers a strong, well-paced and expressive performance featuring a variety of different character voices and clear differentiation between them all. He narrates the entire book – narrative and dialogue – in the same impeccable English accent and sustains it extremely well. I really liked his portrayal of Marcel – he’s upbeat and charming and a bit whimsical; the deeper pitch he adopts for Death is a good contrast, and he expertly captures Death’s world-weariness and the playfulness that comes out when he’s around Marcel. The one real criticism I can make is that the author has set the bulk of the story in a small town near Bristol and makes several references to “West Country” accents throughout the story – and while Mr. North has a pretty good stab at the accent, it doesn’t always hit the mark and sounds – to my British ears – rather strange.

In the end, I’m on the fence about Death Eternal. Apart from that one issue, the narration is great, and as I knew in advance that this is a same-couple series with an ongoing story arc, I was prepared for there to be a fair bit of set up in this book. I just wish some of that set up had been dedicated to the romance.

BUT – now I know what I know, I’m thinking I will probably listen to the next book, to find out what happens next, and to see if, now that Marcel knows the truth, there might be some actual relationship development happening. I can’t offer an unreserved recommendation for Death Eternal, but the reveal and cliff-hanger at the end have intrigued me enough to want to see where the story goes.

Caz

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