I wasn’t sure where the book was heading when I first started reading. The text begins with Ded on a plane trapped between some jerks, his job has him traveling with no real place to call home. I made the assumption that he was “Death” and his job was going place to place to take the lives of a specific set of people. Then there is a death on the plane, but he was no where near him. Maybe his job was to take the souls of those who die to the afterlife? No, wrong again. The story that ensued was even better. Ded, short for Daedalus, is an investigator for an insurance company and really good at his job. He is called to investigate the death on the plane he was just on.

The deceased is a poet, Icky Jerusalem, (it didn’t escape me that Icky is short for Icarus, the son of Daedalus in the ancient story of Icarus flying too close to the sun his father, Daedalus, builds to escape capture). There are only so many people in the plane with Jerusalem. The police have written it off as a self inflicted and Ded has to determine if the death was self inflicted.

I enjoyed the twists and turns. I liked most of the descriptions of the characters but thought the description of Beulah Vala. I get she’s hot, but the descriptions were a little much. The other characters descriptions I thought were funny, they included: his chauffeur, Adam Ghostflea; Tharmas Luvah, his business manager; Bacon Urizon, his lawyer; Dr.Bromion Ulro, a physician; Robert N. William, the flight purser. I also appreciated the awe the detective O’Nadir at watching Ded do his thing and find out exactly what happened.

I liked the book and look forward to reading more by the author. I was given the opportunity to read this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.