Practical Demonkeeping

By: Christopher Moore

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

In Christopher Moore's ingenious debut novel, we meet one of the most memorably mismatched pairs in the annals of literature. The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and ""roads"" scholar Travis O'Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets. Behind the fake Tudor facade of Pine Cove, California, Catch sees a four-star buffet. Travis, on the other hand, thinks he sees a way of ridding himself of his toothy traveling companion. The winos, neo-pagans, and deadbeat Lotharios of Pine Cove, meanwhile, have other ideas. And none of them is quite prepared when all hell breaks loose.

Quite obvious it's Christopher Moore's first book

I have read seven other Christopher Moore's books, six of which I enjoyed immensely (Love Story and Grim Reaper series). I literally laughed out loud many times during those experiences. This one, not so much. While it is a good story overall with well-developed characters, it just never reaches the level of story-telling evident in Moore's subsequent efforts. I was, however, able to get through it in one try, unlike the "Serpent of Venice", which I could not make a quarter of the way through in several attempts, mostly due to the Elizabethan dialogue coupled with Euan Morton's accent and unnecessary amount of profanity. I will try again soon perhaps. Back to Pine Cove...

The plot lacks the cohesiveness and the dialogue lacks the same humorous punch I have come to expect from Moore. It's as if the story ambled along looking for direction for much of the book, not unlike the main character's quest to find the WWI veteran with the first initial E. The bumbling Sgt. Ramirez was nothing more than an unnecessary distraction, bolted on to add some semblance of depth perhaps.

Oliver Wyman does a nice job with the narration and voice characterizations which save the sometimes plodding storyline and sometimes banal dialogue. Wyman's performance doesn't reach the levels of the hilarious Susan Bennett of the "Vampire Love Story" series or Fisher Steven's performance in the "Grim Reaper" books.

I understand from reviews that the Pine Cove series does improve with subsequent installments, so I look forward to those. I still love Moore and will give any future book the benefit of the doubt.

Great book

Christopher Moore has done it again.. Very funny book. I enjoyed every minute of it

Very Good

The writing is excellent, the reading is very good. I downloaded the book using the audible for blackberry and every three minutes, the recording would skip several seconds

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Any additional comments?

Why is this read by someone who seems to want to be the next Casey Casum? That "top 40 radio guy" melody and cadence he affected was just not well suited to this story. So cheesy! I recommend that you by this one in print.

Funny and different

The story was different, the characters were like able and it didn’t take itself too seriously. I would recommend to someone looking for a short and enjoyable paranormal comedy.