And it provides a locus for all kinds of half-and-half entities to mingle with the living - such as those who rejected the idea of death entirely and lost themselves under the winnowing forces of the mundane world. It also holds those who need to spend time reconciling themselves with the fact of death, or with the way they spent their lives. It hosts The Door through which Wallace and his fellow deceased will eventually travel (to where? we never learn). From the reaction Klune puts into Wallace's head, Over There it has clear overtones of aching hipsterdom, while this side of the Atlantic one thinks of crumbs, chintz and copper ornaments, also probably steamed up windows and rain).Īctually Charon's Crossing DOES have some weird borderline characteristics. (I need to stop here to smile for a moment over what are clearly difference between the associations of 'teashop' in the US and the UK. The teashop - Charon's Crossing - isn't some weird borderland thing, it's an actual, genuine teashop serving a range of infusions to the customers as well as home made scones and other baked goods. Accompanied by reaper Mei (pronounced 'May') whose first gig this is, Wallace is led to a teashop, run by Hugo, also inhabited - haunted? - by Hugo's dead grandfather Nelson and dead dog Apollo. In many respects, his life only begins then. The biggest difference, though, lies I think, in the dynamics of what happens after Wallace's death. And while Scrooge was offered visions of what may come - including the prospect of going to the grave unmourned and unsung - and time to amend his life, no such luxury is accorded Wallace. Wallace isn't quite the caricature that Scrooge is. Like Scrooge, Wallace wasn't always a work-obsessed misanthropist: like Scrooge he knew love, but it turned sour on him.

Yes, there are overtones of everybody's favourite spooky Dickens novel here. Basically he's having trouble accepting this whole 'deceased' thing and so a Reaper has to be despatched to escort him to - well, we'll come to that. Wallace himself IS surprised by that: but more at having actually, you know, died. So it's hardly surprising when, after his sudden death, only a handout of people attend Wallace's funeral. Seen early on in Under the Whispering Door firing an unfortunate employee whose life problems are affecting her work, he is driven, unempathetic and demanding.

Wallace Price would not be anyone's idea of a sympathetic boss.

TJ Klune casts light and wisdom on the mysteries of life and death in this engaging new novel. I'm grateful to the publisher for an advance copy of Under the Whispering Door.

Under the whispering door wallace