Blurb:

Never trust a dying auditor.

Allies are few and hijinks are many in this hilarious race against time as the Grim Reaper himself tries to cheat death and avoid an audit by Hell's Auditor and the Office of Micromanagement.

After sharing an ill-advised cup of tea with IRS auditor Frank Totmann, Grim finds himself trapped in Frank's life amid a world of dangers: love, betrayal, reckless cabbies, implacable demon hunters, and the incessant needs that keep his body ticking . . . for now.

But what happens when Death isn't shepherding souls to their final destinations? When bodies refuse to die in a world-wide epidemic of miraculous survivals? Grim has seen this once before. He knows what's coming, and it's not good . . .

Written in the witty comedic styles of Sir Terry Pratchett and Piers Anthony, Death and the Taxman is a lighthearted contemporary fantasy that began as an award-winning short story of the same name published in Writers of the Future Volume 39. Acclaim for that short story by readers and critics alike called it "brilliant and hilarious," "delightful and quirky," and "laugh-out-loud funny."

Review:

I vaguely remember seeing “Death and the Taxman” earlier this year, and I was looking for something humorous to read, so I sent over an email to Hankins, got a reply within minutes, and I started reading a review copy of his novel not long after that. This being a shortish book of about 240ish pages, I read it fairly quickly, and had a good laugh here and there. Not much was remiss in this novel and I wonder if there’ll be a sequel to it any time soon. 

If I had to quickly interest someone in this novel, I’d tell them this, “The Grim Reaper ain’t lazy. Always on the move, always reaping souls. So when one offers him a drink, he’s surprised at first, then mad.”, alongside the usual spiel of knowing more about what’s inside. And again, this only covers a bit of the whole story, and it doesn’t capture the absolute absurdity and surrealism this book has to offer. One example is how the Grim Reaper explains how cats are teleporting creatures with no soul, and another example would be Grims absolute reluctance to put a seat belt on because, according to him a car is a death trap and he refuses to tie himself down to one. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

To start this book off we have the main character and his nemesis, so to speak. The Grim Reaper and the tax auditor Frank Totmann who tricked him into a “Freaky Friday”esque soul swap, this time with tea instead of fortune cookies. 

First, the Grim Reaper or, as I’ll call him throughout this review, Grim, is naive in the ways humans operate day to day life. He knows everything about how and when they’ll die, but the basic necessities a human has is lost to him. On top of that, he cannot lie, meaning he’s either the blunt sledgehammer of truth, the half-liar, or the awkward silent guy. He learns what it’s like to be a human, pitfalls and all. And then he goes back to being the grim reaper, and all is back to normal - mostly.

Then, then we have Frank. We don’t see him much throughout this book, mostly just at the beginning, a short appearance in the middle, and then, of course, the finale. But still, we learn a lot about him with Grim living his life vicariously. Anyhow, he’s a weasel and completely disregards, or worse, doesn’t understand the powers he possesses, leading to hell taking over the death business, and the Auditor starts getting some power hungry ideas. If you are wondering who the Auditor is - he is the Auditor. 

Now, to the plot of this book. It’s pretty straightforward with minimal twists and turns, some surprises here and there. What I liked about the plot here is that it is not overly convoluted and if I had about five minutes to talk with someone about this book, they’d get the overall idea of this book rather easily. It goes along the path of constant action and reaction, with each action getting an almost immediate reaction, and therefore the book keeps moving. That’s the best way to describe this book. Sure, there are some twists and some surprising events that keep you reading, but overall, it’s mostly reactions to actions. I enjoyed it, it was extremely easy to read and understand, with the time flying past as I turned each page.

After that, David Hankins numerous nods to German speaking countries (mostly Germany). While reading “Death and the Taxmann”, I cackled numerous times at the choice of names, food and weapons. As someone who speaks Deutsch and knows about mediaeval German kingdoms, alongside the various German specialties, this was a book that felt absurd, awesome, and absolutely surreal to read. On a complete side note related to German specialties brought up in David Hankins book, if you are in Germany or are going to visit Germany, go to a bakery and order “etwas mit Apfel”. It is amazing.

Besides the fact that this was an absolute absurd read with German things being tossed in, the language itself is used to hide away an easter egg. Wonderfully done. 

Finally, there’s the whole concept of the afterlife in “Death and the Taxman”. Despite its short length, this novel still gives us enough information to know who is the nemesis, the villain behind the scenes and the various side evils or helping hands. Like the Auditor. He’s in charge of the Micromanaging Office in hell. As the name suggests, they micromanage the living hell out of everything. Then, there’s the eternal torment - customer support, spam calls, telemarketing. I can feel the pain Hankins must’ve gone through with such calls in the story he tells. Not only does it make the story feel more authentic, it’s also relatable and extremely funny because it is true. The telemarketing never ends. Each detail here regarding various supernatural elements, including cats, works, not because of great writing (it is, don’t get me wrong here), but because it acts as a gateway to what he has experienced with various entities.

If I had any gripes about it, I’d have to say that some parts were very contrived if you will. It is a book that is meant to be comedic, and it does do that part flawlessly, but some of the jokes, some of the comedy, feels shoehorned in to make sure the comedy lands. It’s meant to do so, but it might not work for everyone.

Overall, if you want a fun, really fast read, with lots of relatable humour, and many scenarios of Grim trying to live life as a human and regain his powers, this is the book for you. 

As always, if you’ve reached the end of this, thank you for reading this review, and I hope I’ve nudged you towards your next read. If not, don’t fret, we have a plethora of reviews for a wide variety of novels, be they high or low fantasy, light science fiction or gargantuan space opera.

Wherever you are reading this review, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or good night!