The Bookwyrm's Review of Duckett & Dyer: Dicks for Hire by G.M. Nair

 Length: 302 Pages

Publisher: DsDf

Release Date: March 30, 2019

Genre: Comedy/sci-fi

Rating: 4 1/2 of 5 Stars

Link to Buy on Amazon

I make no secret of my love for comedic sci-fi and fantasy. Make it kind of silly with lots of laughs, and a crazy cast of characters and I'm sold. When I saw the premise of Duckett & Dyer: Dicks for Hire, I knew this was a book I had to read, and the author was kind enough to send me a review copy. I almost didn't finish it, though, because I did something I never do with a book: I misplaced it. Took me a week to find it, because I couldn't for the life of me remember I had been reading it outside. Luckily, none of the kids or the animals got to it, and I was able to finish this highly entertaining took.

PLOT SUMMARY

Michael Duckett is fed up with his life. His job is a drag, and his roommate and best friend of fifteen years, Stephanie Dyer, is only making him more anxious with her lazy irresponsibility. Things continue to escalate when they face the threat of imminent eviction from their palatial 5th floor walk-up and find that someone has been plastering ads all over the city for their Detective Agency.

The only problem is: He and Stephanie don’t have one of those.

Despite their baffling levels of incompetence, Stephanie eagerly pursues this crazy scheme and drags Michael, kicking and screaming, into the fray only to find that they are way out of their depth. They stumble upon a web of missing people that are curiously linked to a sexually audacious theoretical physicist and his experiments with the fabric of space-time. And unless Michael and Stephanie can put their personal issues aside and fix the multi-verse, the concept of existence itself may, ironically, no longer exist.

CHARACTERS AND WORLD BUILDING

I mentioned that a zany cast of characters will draw me in every time, and this book has that in spades, especially in the two main characters, Michael Duckett and Stephanie Dyer. You could not pick two more different characters to play off one another. Michael, the straight lace, unambitious office drone, could have come right out of the movie Office Space. He's the kind of inoffensive guy you'd  never notice in a crowd. This is in contrast to his room mate and best friend Stephanie, who is as big a slacker as your likely to find. She can't hold a job, is always late with her half of the rent and basically just wants to sit around eating cereal on her couch while watching tv. People this different shouldn't be friends, but yet, they are. Stephanie is always pushing Michael to loosen up and take chances, while Michael wants Stephanie to grow up. Their reactions to the events in the book are priceless, and completely in character. You really get drawn into what makes this odd couple friends as they go from one disaster to another. 

The rest of the characters are well thought out, from a cop trying to solve years of mysterious disappearances to the guy who is responsible for the crazy events taking place. They all get some fun moments that point to greater motivations and their places in the universe. The characters just seem very carefully crafted to move the plot without seeming to, acting in natural ways to unusual situations. Its very well done.

The world building is insanely creative. When you are dealing with a multiverse, there seems to be a lot of temptation to make the various changes small between worlds. In this case, the changes are much bigger than that in a lot of cases, while in others, not much changes. There are some hilarious worlds Michael and Stephanie have to deal with, and some just plainly absurd but hilarious situations on them.  There is literally a world where their crazy conjecture about what could possibly be the weirdest world they can go to comes true, in hilarious fashion. The author has a twisted imagination, but in the best possible way. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is a book that could have gone horribly wrong in lesser hands. Luckily, it was written by just the right person. He managed to meld an interesting sci-fi premise to hilarious characters and situations and make it resonate with me as a reader. You really get to care about these characters, and can relate to their struggle, even though some of it is so out there. I think this book has appeal to a wide range of fans, from sci fi and comedic fans, with even mystery fans being able to find something to like here. I highly recommend you check out Duckett & Dyer: Dicks for Hire.