• Paperback: 336 pages
• List Price: $7.99 US/$9.99 CDN
• Publisher: Ace (February 23, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441018440
• ISBN-13: 978-0441018444

Buy Dead Matter on February 23rd at:

• Chapters/Indigo
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble

Visit Anton Strout on his website

The spirit populace of Manhattan doesn’t appreciate its well-deserved RIP being disturbed, and Department of Extraordinary Affairs Agent Simon Canderous is sent in to do damage control. Meanwhile, his vacationing partner, Connor Christos, is in a sorry state, and he tells Simon that each night he’s being haunted by visions of his long-lost brother at his window. Simon is worried that his partner may be going crazy-or worse, maybe he’s not…

When an outbreak of ghost sightings happen in NYC, Simon is left to deal with it on his own because Connor has taken all his vacation time and disappeared. Simon finally catches up with Connor and realizes he’s close to loosing his sanity due to nightmares plaguing him. On top of the ghosts, there have been sightings of a new type of monster, one that almost threatens Jane & Simon’s Taco Night. Well, they come across this monster while grocery shopping for Taco Night. In the third installment of the Simon Canderous series, we finally get to find out what happened to Connor’s older brother 20 years ago. At age 14, Aidan disappeared during a beach trip with his family, Connor was only 12. At the end of the last book, the hopes of Connor ever finding Aidan were pretty slim. It’s also been 777 days since the D of EA’s last vampire sighting, but that doesn’t mean Enchancellor Allorah Daniel’s is giving up on hunting them into extinction.

This is Anton Strout’s BEST Simon novel yet.

I couldn’t put it down and I didn’t want it to end, knowing that Anton’s releases are once a year (every February) kept me from staying up all night to devour Dead Matter. There are all sorts of new characters, that I am dying to know more about in upcoming novels from Brandon to Nicolas. The movies playing in the LoveCraft Cafe, brilliantly played! (hint hint) And the laughs keep coming with references to 90210. There was one particular line that had me actually laughing out loud, which is rare in UF:

“David Matthews,” he said.

I raised one eyebrow.

“Please don’t tell me me the Dave Matthews Band is immortal or something…although that would explain why they play so well together.”

Not only does Anton provide the perfect amount of snark in Simon but the action in this book is non-stop, so much so Simon is at risk of loosing his job with the Department of Extraordinary Affairs. Of course Simon’s trusty bat makes a few appearances, especially when Jane gets it upgraded as a gift. Speaking of Jane, she has her own issues to deal with in Dead Matter so we don’t see much of her but enough of her to know that Simon does love her and she’s around for the long haul.

If you haven’t read a Simon Canderous novel yet, you are seriously missing out on one of the greatest series around. I’m just sayin’.