Dead Anyway

By: Chris Knopf

Narrated by: Donald Corren

Imagine this: You have a nice life. You love your beautiful, successful wife. You’re an easygoing guy working out of your comfortable Connecticut home. The world is an interesting, pleasant place. Then in seconds, it’s all gone. You’re still alive, but the world thinks you’re dead. And now you have to decide: Make it official, or go after the evil that took it all away from you.

Arthur Cathcart, market researcher and occasional finder of missing persons, decides to live on and fight by doing what he knows best - figuring things out without revealing his status as a living, breathing human being. Much easier said than done in the post-9/11 world, where everything about yourself and all the tools you need to live a modern life are an open book. How do you become a different person? How do you finance an elaborate scheme without revealing yourself? How, as a dead man, do you force a reckoning with the worst people on earth?

Mystery writer Chris Knopf, who has examined complex what-ifs in eight other novels, tackles these intriguing questions in a tale of mindless venality, phantom identity, impossible obstacles, and the triumph of intellect and imagination over brute force.

Chris Knopf’s mysteries have received exceptional accolades, with critics comparing him to Elmore Leonard, John D. MacDonald, and Ross Macdonald.

©2012 Chris Knopf (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Knopf…reaches a new imaginative peak with market researcher Arthur Cathcart in this outstanding revenge novel." ( Publishers Weekly)

" Dead Anyway is a perfectly rendered murder mystery with enough unpredictable twists and turns to satisfy even the most hardened aficionado of the genre. Dry humor is scattered throughout. This offbeat story told in the first-person is executed with faultless page-turner pacing and panache." ( New York Journal of Books)

"Knopf’s tale is suspenseful from the get-go, with an intellectual, yet visceral, vigilantism coursing through the pages. In a major change in direction, the author of the Sam Acquillo Hamptons mysteries never misses an angle and manages to weave a bit of humor into a storyline that could have been purely dark. This bodes well for a really good series and is reminiscent of Richard Stark’s (a.k.a. Donald Westlake) Parker novels with a dose of Grosse Pointe Blank." (Library Journal)

the plot and twist

New to this author but have already purchased other books in the series. the unassuming main character and the plots he is involved in are riveting

I was riveted by the end of the first chapter

By the end of the first chapter, I was hooked, thoroughly enjoyed this story. This was the first Knopf book I’ve read but I will certainly be reading more from this author. The narrator does a nice job with the story and the characters. Can’t wait to listen to book 2 in the Arthur Cathcart series.

Very compelling story

I thought the story was really intriguing, an audio page turner. I found Arthur's methodologies fascinating, and a bit scary! It was entirely plausible than an 'altered' Arthur would be able to do what he did. I'm looking forward to continuing on to the next books to see how this story continues to unfold.

My only complaint, and it is minor, is that at times it was hard to tell female characters from male, or more specifically Natsumi vs. Arthur. Other than that I thought Donald Corren's voicing of Arthur was perfect.

My favorite Knopf book so far.

Disclaimer: I've known Chris for 25 years. I read his first book out of curiosity. His second out of friendship and then I just started reading them because they were effing great. This is my favorite so far. A great read. And I learned two things. One, how to launder massive amounts of money and go completely undetected. And two, never piss Chris Knopf off, because he obviously knows how to use technology to wipe your life from existence.