Alive In Necropolis

ALIVE IN NECROPOLIS

by Doug Dorst

 

Nomination: PEN/Hemingway Longlist 2009

 

Date Read: October 4, 2009

 

Colma, California, the "cemetery city" serving San Francisco, is the resting place of the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Wyatt Earp, and William Randolph Hearst. It is also the home of Michael Mercer, a by-the-book rookie cop struggling to settle comfortably into adult life. Instead, he becomes obsessed with the mysterious fate of his predecessor, Sergeant Wes Featherstone, who spent his last years policing the dead as well as the living. As Mercer attempts to navigate the drama of his own daily life, his own grip on reality starts to slip-either that, or Colma's more famous residents are not resting in peace as they should be.

 

I read this as a part of my book club and enjoyed this. Forever after, we always mention that Colma has more dead than living, a factoid which never gets old for my family. All of the local color and landmarks were fun as well. 

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