Review: I'm Dead Again by Keith Nixon

Tuesday 16 June 2015
Title: I'm Dead Again
Author: Keith Nixon
Publisher: Caffeine Nights
Publication Date: 11th May 2015
Pages: 232
ISBN: 9781910720226
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon
I'm Dead Again: David Brodie, literally once ace reporter, is on a serious downward slide with his ex-wife, ex-job and ex-bank balance hanging around his neck.Until he receives a phone call. From a dead man. Soon it could be ex-life.

When the corpse of her ex-husband turns up in dubious circumstances Emily Hollowman enlists ex-KGB and current tramp Konstantin Boryakov to investigate. With stone cold killer, Mr. Lamb in tow the pair discovers all roads lead to disgraced businessman, Gordon Dredge, the man who cost Brodie everything...

But Dredge is in trouble too, in debt to gangland boss Stevie 'The Steroid' Oakhill. But Oakhill has his own problems, a Chechen by the name of Adam is trying to take his business.

The hilarious follow-up to bestselling The Fix - gangsters, murder and a multitude of sarcasm await... who will die first?


I was so excited when I finally I got my hands on I'm Dead Again which sees the return of ex-KGB Konstantin Boryakov for another action-packed read that had me fully engrossed over the course of a fun-filled afternoon.

My favourite character in I'm Dead Again was by far reporter David Brodie who the blurb describes as somebody who is on a serious downward slide. He is so wonderfully cynical and sarcastic, with an at times too realistic outlook on the world rather than being one of those 'Oh, it can only get better...' types. I don't think you'll find any rose-tinted glasses amongst his personal possessions. He is a character who is basically muddling along through life, not really caring whether his days begin or end, perhaps even preferring them to end for good with his blase attitude towards things such as red lights... Brodie lays blame for his predicament firmly at the door of disgraced businessman Gordon Dredge, and his outlook on life changes drastically when he is presented with the opportunity for some form of vengeance towards Dredge.

I'm Dead Again features a large cast of characters, and as with The Fix they are all so well-drawn. It's a story where every characters is hunting somebody or something but they are also being hunted themselves. Dredge is a man not without his own problems, namely his debt to Stevie 'The Steroid' Oakhill. Oakhill himself having to content with a Chechen trying to takeover his business. There's real excitement when reading I'm Dead Again because there's very few ways to predict which way the story will go. And which characters will even be alive by the end of it. I was definitely rooting for Brodie though. He is a character who is easy to believe in - I tried to ignore any similarities I had in my own outlook on life at times - and somebody who I definitely wanted to succeed, seeing in him the person he could become. It's a thought-provoking read in the way that it shows the effect that being involved with a person like Dredge can have, whether that's on criminals he associates with, reporters like Brodie or anybody else who just happens to get caught up with him.

Konstantin is a character who continues to evolve naturally, once again the reader learning more about him and enjoying the time spent in his company enough to want to read more about him in the future. Returning characters from The Fix help flesh out the novel, giving us updates into how they too have progressed, some fates being a little bit better than others... Keith Nixon somehow takes so many different elements: comedy, drama, gangsters, crime, thriller, black humour and mixes them all up to create a finished product which is pretty damn good. It's clear reading how much fun Keith must have writing these novels, but they are also at times serious but always enjoyable and compelling reads and this time around a real example of just how far people can go when they are pushed to their limits.

I am lucky enough to have a copy of Keith Nixon's standalone crime novel The Corpse Role which I hope to have a review for over the coming weeks. Until then if you haven't already, I would definitely recommend picking up The Fix and I'm Dead Again.

4.5/5

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