Dead Money - Srinath Adiga

Fiction/Horror

Rating: 7.5/10

Life is short. But afterlife isn’t. This is the ad campaign for a one of a kind con that our main character cooks up in order to try and repay fifty plus million dollars he lost as a spectacularly bad investor. He is selling afterlife dollars to ensure that you can live out your death in style, safety and comfort. Apparently, you can take it with you.

While you might think people are far too savvy to fall for this scam, many cultures subscribe to deeply imbedded beliefs about life after death that may make them more susceptible to manipulation.

I didn’t realize until the shift into the second part that this was a novel comprised of the interconnected stories of three men caught up in this scheme in different ways. Early on in this book I thought I was reading a satirized skewering of consumerism and maybe religion but as we shifted into the second part, the threat of the consequences of the hustle was revealed in a way I wasn’t prepared for. And frankly, the swerve somewhat lessened my enjoyment of the read.

Without question this is a unique book, kudos to those that ensure novels that don’t fit precisely to some formula make their way to readers!

Thanks to Net Galley, Central Avenue Publishing and the author for the advanced readers copy.