Well, yet another twist involving another non-physical realm of existence. The good news? Evil doesn’t die at the end, although we do lose some people getting there.

This is by far the darkest book of the series. I suspect some readers will find the ending depressing, or perhaps less like an ending and more like the slow disappearance of a song that repeats the chorus line over and over, as the volum drops to zero.

Dirge would not feel out of place among post WWI poets, evoking as it does a sense of ending via slow collapse, rather than sudden or violent. It’s a bit like reading Yeats: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;”

I spent the entire book expecting a right turn back into the spirit of the trilogy. Instead, the book takes a sharp left and you fall out of it, sitting dazed by the side of the road.

If you enjoyed the first two books, you will enjoy this one as well. Just do not expect a nice bit of closure like Fortinbras at the end of Hamlet. Instead, imagine the curtain coming down before he shows up, while the bodies lie dead and bleeding, and open-mouthed spectators stand silently in shock.

You can find Hoffman’s books on Amazon, or, spend a couple more bucks and get an actual book at the author’s website.

See my review for book 2, Full Moon on the Bayou (Ex Mortis book 2).

See my review for book 1, Death Cramps My Style (Ex Mortis book 1).