(courtesy Penguin Books Australia)
I know you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover; but what its title?
What if it’s so quirky and full of promise with a tagline that says “The hardest murder to solve is your own”?
Well then you scoop it up, head straight to the checkout and hope the book, in this case Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson, more than lives up to its intriguingly playful but portentous title.
The good news is that it does, and then some, with the novel putting protagonist Jet Mason, and by extension, the victim of the title, in the wholly unique position of having to solve her own murder which, rather uniquely, happens in slow motion after an attack on Halloween leaves with a catastrophic brain injury than will leave her dead within a week.
As she and her severely injured body count down to a life-ending aneurysm with a mix of dread, resignation and black humour, which surely is the only way to handle such a bizarrely horrible situation, she’s determined to finally live a little and find out who came up from behind, violently attacked and almost got away with it.
The word “almost” is used because even though it looks like her attacker has gotten away scot-free, the truth is that Holly, who has never really left small Woodstock, Vermont, except to go to college (dropped out) and work briefly (didn’t work out), is hellbent on uncovering who murdered her if it’s the last thing she does.
‘Do something?’ Mom cried. ‘What do you mean? Do what?’
Something great.
Something no one had ever done before.
‘I’m going to solve my own murder.’
And, to be fair, it likely will be.
One of the pleasing aspects of Not Quite Dead Yet, which has a protagonist you hope and pray somehow dodges ghoulish destiny because she’s one of the most alive and sassy people you’ll ever meet, is that Jackson doesn’t simply make Holly all savage quips and barbed observations but someone who is slowly but surely succumbing to her fate.
Even as her spirit and resolve remain as feisty and tenacious as ever, her body starts to fail on her, little bit but little bit, and that theoretical ticking clock the doctor refers to in a waiting room filled with flawed but loving (mostly) family suddenly become very real.
It is impossible to escape what lies in wait for Holly which adds real edge to her search for her murderer, a quest which you won’t be surprised to learn, stirs all kinds of secrets and issues for her rich construction family, the townspeople, and for her faithful companion during the week, her childhood friend Billy, who harbours more than fond friendly feelings for her.
Not Quite Dead Yet is a novel that isn’t going to make it easy for anyone and while Holly draws ever closer to finding out whodunnit and why they dunnit, she can’t get away from the fact that at some point her brain will act out its final ghastly task and she’ll succumb to her barbaric injuries, ready or not.
(courtesy Penguin Random House)
The key then is to make sure she is ready.
With Billy by her side, and a resolve to forego sleeping and eating for breaking and entering (to get clues of course), Holly is absolutely going to finish one thing in her life, made all the more important in that it will be the last thing she ever does.
What a way to go out, huh?
Holly thinks so, but her grim desire to end with a Agatha Christie’n, all the suspects in the library for the big reveal moment – to be honest that’s not what she’s literally going for but definitely and without a doubt, figuratively – is tinged, nay, soaked with some very real emotional portent which leaves you almost crying even as Holly gets closer and closer to knowing who ended her life.
You like Holly, you like her a lot, and you want her to survive, somehow though that seems (and is) impossible, and so, since that wish can’t be granted, you fervently hope she lasts long enough to be able to put all the clues together, to confront the person who murdered her and to see not only justice done, but her life serve one last huge purpose.
For a mission more than influenced by a tragic, very final deadline, Holly’s quest to find her killer is almost fun at times, as she comes alive for the first time in her life and she and Billy have quite likely the best week of their lives.
Jet stepped out of the car, left the door open, left her brother behind.
She walked down the darkened street.
Luke’s screams and the staccato of the wailing horn followed her all the way.
Maybe Billy might top that as he lives on but Holly most certainly won’t and much of the deeply impactful emotional resonance of Not Quite Dead Yet comes from knowing that every direct question, every deftly uncovered clue and every charged but often fruitful moment, is one of the last things Holly will ever do.
Jackson succeeds brilliantly here in offering up not just a world-class mystery that does what all good mysteries does and keeps you guessing to the very end, but like Christie before her, injecting some truly profound humanity into proceedings.
No matter how sudsy the story may get, and there are some very criminally soap operatic twists and turns that are absolutely brilliant, Not Quite Dead Yet always keeps front and centre the fact that for all her sass and understandable attitude, that Holly is only ever going to get to sleuth like this the once.
This is not a new career or a lifelong repositioning of resolve and action; this is IT and no well how well Holly excels, and by god she does in fantastically riveting form, she’s a one-shot deal and nothing she does can change that.
But what she can do is find her killer, make her peace with a life that hasn’t exactly played out as she planned (but then had she planned anything that was hers alone?) and set the scales of life right again all while discovering who she is, what it is she loves and values and how you only discover what life can be often when you’re back is well and truly up against a very final and fatal wall.