Great Reads for Great Readers

 

Over My Dead Body, by Maz Evans.

 

            Miriam Price, arrogant, brilliant A &E Medical Consultant at one of Britain’s most prestigious teaching hospitals – has died.

            And she’s not happy about it!  Firstly, she has been murdered but her death has been arranged to show that she died by misadventure after ingesting heroic amounts of pills and booze:  the nasty cow (Miriam has no friends, doesn’t want any) was an unapologetic alcoholic pill-popper, so her end has come as no surprise to any of her colleagues;  they’re just surprised that it took her so long.  Miriam, on the other hand, knows that her death was no accidental loss of control;  she has been a ‘functioning’ alcoholic since she was sixteen – no, someone else has done this to her and arranged the death scene to look as it did.  But who?  Miriam is furious with herself for not remembering and, after a visit to Limbo, learns that she will be stuck there for many decades unless she can indeed prove that she was murdered.  The Afterlife has more rules and regulations than her posh boarding school before one reaches the Nirvana of Eternity and really, from what she’s seen so far, she could die of boredom all over again unless she can prove to Limbo Admin that she died by foul means.  Then she could meet again with her beloved Dad – and her mother, who had a very unique approach to life – and death.  Is she ready for that?

            First things first:  not everyone can ‘see’ Miriam;  her presence is felt by very few people, which makes eavesdropping very entertaining, especially watching friends and families as they mourn her passing at her memorial service, and the various reactions of people that she cared about (not many) come as a shock – including the appearance of her elderly next-door neighbour with whom she has been feuding for two years:  Miriam’s cat was murdered by that old battleaxe, who squashed her beneath her car, and has come to her service to make sure Miriam is really dead, not to pay any respects. And she is one of the very few who can see her.  AND, by various torturous events, the only one who can help her prove her very real suspicions.  Talk about making a deal with the Devil!

            Which is struck, as it should be in Maz Evans’s hugely entertaining debut novel.  This book is seriously good fun, but also raises the big questions, especially how everyone grieves in their own ways, i.e. Miriam’s father committed suicide and her mother was furious, because she’d already cooked his dinner when Miriam found his body:  there was a meal wasted!  That surely is a singular way to react to one’s nearest and dearest’s death.  There are many more well-drawn characters in this clever story, but Miriam is the star, even though she is initially so unlikeable – which is a shame, because we won’t be meeting her again.  Not in this life, anyway!  FIVE STARS.