Death and Other Occupational Hazards

By Veronika Dapunt

Book Overview

"Veronika Dapunt masterfully blends dark humor with a compelling mystery, offering a fresh and often hilarious perspective on life and death." -- Joanna Wallace, author of You'd Look Better as a Ghost

For fans of Sign Here and Benjamin Stevenson comes a darkly comedic, genre-bending mystery following a female-personified Death who must investigate a string of unplanned murders before the whole world is thrown into chaos.

Her job is to die for. Literally.

When most people think of Death, they picture a skeleton in a black potato sack. Maybe with a scythe. Truth is, she's just a woman doing a job, and she's very good at it. Still, even Death needs a break. But when she finally takes some time off to live on earth, things start to go terribly wrong. Someone is killing people not on her list (well, not yet anyway) and it's up to her to find the killer before it's too late.

To make matters worse, her sanctimonious sister Life - whom Death hasn't gotten along with in millennia - won't stop blaming her for the unplanned deaths . . . and then there's the slight problem of the charming (and sexy) parasitologist she can't quite trust.

But she'll be fine, right?

After all, who better to investigate a murder than Death herself?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1464249709
• ISBN13: 9781464249709
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Touching Tale of Death

This was surprisingly a fun book to read. I have not read another book about Death with this kind of personality and unique perspective that had plenty of laughs but also deals with darker topics and bittersweet but lovely moments. I totally get how Death might get burned out after dealing with, well, so much death over billions of years. Plus how her relationship with her sister as well as her "coworkers" and boss was a bit complicated. Too bad that Death's sabbatical was anything but relaxing! I love how she and the other characters are nicely, diverse with weaknesses and strengths and still likable (though maybe not the VP of P and P!). Add in mysterious Unplanned Deaths, a scheme long time in the making, and a chance for Death to get up and close experiences with the humans she has been ferrying and collecting for a millennia, and you have a fun tale that I really enjoyed reading. It felt quite cozy and I had no problems rooting for Death to figure it all out before something really terrible happened. And I really hope I get to meet this kind of Death when I die (and I really want to meet Garm!). This was a well written debut and I am glad I got the chance to read this. I will happily watch out for any other books that Veronika Dapunt will write in the future!