Book Reviews and More: Dead Inside - Barry J Hutchinson - Dan Deadman Space Detective Book 2

Dead Inside

Dan Deadman Space Detective Book 2

Barry J. Hutchison

aka Barry Hutchinson

aka J.D. Kirk

Zertex Media

ISBN 9781912767700

ASIN B0784QML5V

This is the fourth story I have read in the Space Team Universe, but I have read many others by the author. Several months before reading this I encountered the works of J.D. Kirk I also discovered that Kirk publishes children’s books as Barry Hutchison, and other adult fiction as Barry J. Hutchison. I have read 21 stories published under the Kirk Name and am now branching out to the ones under the Hutchinson names, this is the twelfth under that name. He is coming up on 200 books across the three pen names. If I had known that or I might not have picked up this first one. Friends call me a ‘completionist’ in that when I find an author I like, I try to read everything they have published. I have enjoyed all I have read from his pen and this one was no different.

The description of this novel is:

“Dan Deadman is having one of those days.

After saving the grim and gritty alien city of Down Here from something big, mean and mind-bendingly horrible, Dan is looking forward to unwinding in the closest available bar. Annoyingly, the universe has other ideas.

Instead, Dan finds himself investigating a cheating husband, two horrible murders, and the potential enslavement of everyone in the galaxy. With his caseload stretching his woefully limited detective skills, his car in pieces, and the whole 'being dead' thing not doing him any favors, Dan has no choice but to ask his friends for help.

And that's when his problems really start.

Featuring motivational gangsters, predatory worms and a whole classroom full of defecating infants, "Dead Inside" is the second book in the Dan Deadman Space Detective Series, and the follow-up to the best-selling "Dial D for Deadman".”

When doing research for the Dial D for Deadman review I found on Barry’s site a reading order for the Space Team Universe Books and Short Stories:

1. Space Team

2. Space Team: The Wrath of Vajazzle

2a. Space Team: The Holiday Special

(found in Space Team: A Lot of Weird Space Shizz)

3. Space Team: The Search for Splurt

4. Space Team: Song of the Space Siren

5. Space Team: The Guns of Nana Joan

6. Space Team: Return of the Dead Guy

7. “Dial D for Deadman”

7a. “Dead Men Don’t Get Paid”

(found in Space Team: A Lot of Weird Space Shizz)

8. Space Team: Planet of the Japes

9. “Dead Inside”

10. Space Team: Time Titan of Tomorrow

11. “Dead in the Water”

12. Space Team: The King of Space Must Die!

13. Space Team: Sting of the Mustard Mines

14. Space Team: Sentienced to Death

15. Space Team: The Hunt for Reduk Topa

16. Konto Garr: Bounty Hunter and Occasional Babysitter

I have been intentionally jumping around Barry’s middle grade, young adult, and adult series. This was such a fun read. With a whole lot of slap stick humour, over the top antics. And at times it was laugh out loud funny. It reminds me of several series and authors, most of whom, I read when I was much younger. In a way this book and both series are like a jump back in time for me. The first to come to mind was Harry Harrison’s Bill the Galactic Hero series and his Stainless Steal Rat series, the next was Robert Asprin’s Phule’s Company Series. But for all the sense of a mash up of these other series there is something different about this offering, I absolutely love the concept of the Deadman series. And the universal translator that blocks swearing is very easy to decipher. As is obvious by the title Dan is dead, yea literally dead. He is trying to make a living as a Private Eye. Think Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, except he is dead, not a zombie. And has a conscience even though he fights it often. Ollie (Oledol) is a woman he rescued while closing a portal to the malwhere a place of nightmares. She says she cannot remember anything and she is now more than a bit of a side kick. And man does she have some kick. And Artur his pint size leprechaunish friend. The characters are great. The humour is maybe a bit juvenal. Think Deadpool with an automatic filter to clean up the language.

This story picks up shortly after the previous novel in the series. And there is a novella or short story in an anthology that falls between the two novels. In this one We find out more about Ollie, her powers, and even Dan’s own backstory. We also learn a little more about those who live in floating cities above.

This book marks the 33rd offering from Hutchison I have read in the last 10 months, under the three names he publishes under. They have all been entertaining reads. Some have been excellent. Reading this as mentioned was like a throwback to stuff I read in my late teens and early twenties. It was a very fun read. I love the character of Dan Deadman and look forward to reading more of his stories in the standalone trilogy and in the larger Space Team Universe. A highly entertaining read I can recommend for mature readers who love the slap stick humour!

Books by J.D. Kirk:

The Bone House

…

DCI Logan Series:

The Last Bloody Straw

A Whisper of Sorrows

The Big Man Upstairs

A Death Most Monumental