Ten Dead Comedians

A bleep, a boop, a shudder, a swoosh, and there it was, on each of their phones:

     Hey there Funny Person.

     Steve Gordon didn t see it at first.
     He had a good excuse, though.
     He was dying.
     Steve had died before, of course. He knew how. At the Laugh Shack in Portland, Maine, in front of that bachelorette party. At that open mic in Des Moines, when he was first starting out. At his SNL audition, after his career was basically already over.
     Dying on stage, in the middle of a set, was something every standup experienced. It was as inevitable and unavoidable as bad weather. The pros distinguished themselves from the wannabes by not buckling under the weight of the dead room, of the surly crowd, of their own (hopefully temporary) suckitude.
     But tonight felt different.
     Tonight Steve felt like he was running out of lives.
      Hey, thanks, everybody, for that great welcome. Are you ready to be the best Finance Department we can be?
     Bifocals, bad ties, and pantsuits peered at him from the audience of the Chicago Improv Underground. The theater used to be a strip club and still retained the vague air of being somewhat ashamed of itself, with its low ceiling and bad lighting and support beams blocking sight lines from a third of the seats. Like every other performer, Steve had to memorize the location of the ancient lump of blue putty covering the hole in the floor where the stripper pole had been sawed off to avoid tripping or stubbing his toe on it.
     The tumbledown surroundings were part of the act they helped draw herds of accountants from the Whatever Co. out of the glass tomb of their conference room, down the concrete staircase beneath the Aldi supermarket, for this quarter s team-building seminar.
     This ritualized

Fred Van Lente is the #1 New York Times best-selling writer of the comics Odd Is on Our Side, Archer & Armstrong, and Action Philosophers! He also cowrote the graphic novel Cowboys and Aliens, which was made into a film starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig.

Original, funny, and - like all great comedians - Van Lente slays the audience David Quantick, Emmy award-winning writer of Veep, The Thick of It, Brass Eye, and Harry Hill's TV Burp

Fresh, funny, and entertaining. Ellery Queen s Mystery Magazine

Van Lente s strength is in his narrative ability [...] and his sharp, acerbic humor. The mystery is pretty fun too! BookRiot

Van Lente s look at the selfishness and misery of show business is sure to be a hit with mystery lovers who savor unusual setups; the side of snark provided by the bitter islanders adds to the atmosphere. Booklist

This book is like if Agatha Christie was funny, which is to say that it is infinitely better than Agatha Christie. If you're in the comedy world you'll feel that you know some of the characters firsthand. Hell, if you're a 21st century human you'll feel you know some of the characters firsthand. Jennifer Wright, author of It Ended Badly and Get Well Soon

Ten Dead Comedians is a funny and nail-biting front row seat to the bloodthirsty world of professional comedy ... and that's BEFORE the murders start. Daniel Kibblesmith, writer for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

An homage not only to stand-up comedians everywhere but to Agatha Christie s original mystery, Van Lente s novel is hilarious and suspenseful all at once. BookTrib

Fred Van Lente takes an old idea and drags it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. So assured, so fresh and so inventive, it's hard to believe this is his first novel. Kevin Wignall, best-selling author of A Death in Sweden and The Hunter s Prayer

Spinal Tap meets Agatha Christie. I loved it. Martyn Waites, best-selling author of Born Under Punches and the Tania Carver series

Fred Van Lente delivers an Agatha Christie twisty mystery filled with all the cruel, horrible, and violent deaths that only stand-up comedians truly