Alive in Necropolis Hardcover - 2008

Media reviews

'In the same way Buffy the Vampire Slayer mixed high school and bloodsuckers, Doug Dorst combines cops and ghosts in his Alive in Necropolis. The result is a haunted variation on Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series Imaginative and accomplished Pitch-perfect.'
USA Today

"[A] daring and bighearted first novel...The left brain of this novel, the plotty, structured part, is a fine, familiar branch of California noir. Like Dashiell Hammett, Dorst conveys a hard-bitten love of the physical San Francisco, the fog-swallowed town, the sun after rain, the mineshaft drops in temperature. Scenes are rooted in surroundings and the weather. The fiction seems to possess, and be possessed by, its beloved Bay...Awareness is the high prize of the novel."
The New York Times Book Review

"Doug Dorst's smart and accessibly unconventional first novel, Alive in Necropolis,...is not quite a horror story, nor exactly a mystery, nor just a hard-boiled police procedural, but an adult coming-of-age saga that pulls with energy and imagination from these various genres...[Dorst] us[es] a limited third-person narrative shot through with streaks of black humor to vivid, insightful effect."
San Francisco Chronicle (Lit Pick)

'Doug Dorst's new novel, Alive in Necropolis, takes a sort of Dashiell Hammett point of view in its good-cop-in-deadland story. It's a ripping yarn full of Bay Area historical figures (they're all buried out there, after all) and the kind of police drama we all love so well. . .This thing has beach read and film option written all over it.'
SF Weekly

'This playful debut follows a first-year cop trying to police the citizens, and perhaps ghosts, of Colma, California, the tiny town where San Francisco buries its dead.'
New York Magazine, Summer Read pick

'[A] quirky debut novel from Austin resident Doug Dorst. . .Alive in Necropolis's characters are defined by what they want, not by who they are. And what better metaphor for unfulfilled desire than the walking dead trying to find closure for life's unfinished business.'
Texas Monthly

'Atmospheric. . .part mystery, part compelling account of an angst-ridden young man finding his way in the world.'
Booklist

'Poignant and funny, especially about the self-destructive fools that love makes us. Dorst is a talent to watch.'
Kirkus

'This charming first novel maps the landscape and lives of a small town where ghosts and the living are sometimes indistinguishable from one another. That's what police officer Michael Mercer discovers the night he saves the life of a teenage boy left unconscious and at the mercy of the elements in a Colma, Calif., cemetery. Later, Michael witnesses nocturnal incidents that turn out to be the afterlife activities of local residents who've been dead for decades. The repetitive and unresolved activities of the dead slyly parallel Michael's aimless life and the lives of friends and colleagues similarly mired in day-to-day routine. Though the supernatural elements aren't as well integrated into the main action as they might be, Dorst strikes a perfect balance between humor and pathos. His ability to show the magic potential of everyday lives marks him as an author to watch.'
Publisher's Weekly

Praise for Doug Dorst:'It would be a shame if Doug Dorstis written of as one of the best debutnovelists we've seen in years. He'sbetter than that. He's one of the bestnovelists we've seen in years, writingwell beyond the level we've learnedto expect of first novelists' or newvoices.' He has the control and daringpossessed by only the greats of eachgeneration. He writes with humor andwisdom that is rare, and an empathyfor his characters that is warm andcomplex and unique.'
Stephen Elliott,author of Happy Baby