4 out of 4 stars
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You would think that having a name such as Steve Jobz would make a person lucky until you met Steve Jobz in the comical thriller, The Embalmer. Here, you will find a Steve Jobz who works at the New York State Department of Unemployment Insurance Fraud. He hates his job and his four-by-four cubicle which, he describes, to be as boring as watching paint dry off a wall. He is also not a huge fan of his boss, Henrietta.
Having been a police officer previously, Steve Jobz is completely elated when he is picked to assist in an investigation concerning a serial killer. The main reason, however, for his selection is that he has access to the retirement database as the police are convinced that the killer is retired. The situation starts to get a little heated when he finds out that he actually knows the serial killer and, as such, has to do everything in his power to prevent himself from falling victim to the murderer who embalms his victims to send a message.
Perharps, Vincent Zandri's biggest achievement in this novel is the amount of humor that he packed into the story. This starts from the name of Steve Jobz and the rather humorous depiction of his misery as compared to the Steve Jobs that created Apple. This juxtaposition of the two is very funny and provides an avenue for the main character's (Jobz ) grumpiness throughout the novel. On the other side, however, he sometimes overdid the humor which made it seem as if he was trying too hard.
The plotline of the novel seemed to flow very well, even despite the humor, considering that it is an investigative thriller. It was filled with twists and turns; the biggest of which being the realization that the serial killer was a friend to Jobz. The story was also well thought out and detailed which made it thoroughly enjoyable to read and rather impossible to put down as I always had the yearning to go further, "just a few more pages."
The Embalmer is one of those novels that I absolutely have to award and rate 4 out of 4 stars simply because they are too good to be true. It did not have a lot of grammatical errors and the only problem that I can find with it is the fact that the story had no sense of realism in it. Sure, that is the reason for it being a 'fictional novel', but I felt that the author exaggerated a lot of normal occurrences and details. Most of it was, however, for humor and for that I can not blame him. It is a novel that I highly recommend to lovers of detective thrillers and humorous novels.
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The Embalmer
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