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Death and Other Occupational Hazards

The joyful, hilarious and darkly twisted murder mystery about the not-so-grim reaper.

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Death and Other Occupational Hazards

By: Veronika Dapunt
Narrated by: Chiara Goldsmith
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

People have a few ideas about Death, and the worst by far is a skeleton in a black potato sack. If she’s lucky, she gets a scythe. The truth: she’s just a woman doing a job and she’s very good at it.

Until she takes time off to live as a human and everything falls apart. Someone's killing people not on her schedule (well, not yet anyway) and with no thanks to the Temp she left in charge, it’s up to her to make things right.

With the help of her oh-so-sanctimonious sister, Life, and a charming (sexy) parasitologist, Death must stop the killer before it’s too late. But that’s if she can defeat her greatest challenge yet: human bureaucracy.

Who better to investigate a murder than Death herself?


© Veronika Dapunt 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Amateur Sleuths Cosy Fantasy Humorous Mystery Women Sleuths
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Critic reviews

An entertaining page-turner with plenty of metaphysical fun and games as well as earthly intrigue.
Every now and then, a book arrives completely from leftfield that manages to turn the murder/mystery genre on its head. Death and Other Occupational Hazards is a very clever and hugely funny example of such disruption . . . Wickedly irreverent and clever.
Funny and smart with something new to think about and laugh at on every page. A top-class, deep-dish murder mystery and one of my favourite books of any year.
A murder mystery full of wit, originality and astute observations on humanity. Get ready to fall in love with this likeable and flawed version of the not-so-grim reaper’
A wildly entertaining blend of mystery, humour, and heart. Death as we’ve never known her — witty, sharp, and unexpectedly relatable. A must-read.
This original story gripped me from the start and kept me hooked to the end . . . Different and compelling.
Gloriously absurdist, darkly comic, and utterly readable – twisty fantasy meets Jane Austen with a scythe - love it
Fast-paced supernatural comedy . . . a constant grin of a novel.
Veronika Dapunt masterfully blends dark humour with a compelling mystery, offering a fresh and often hilarious perspective on life and death.
Life, death, love and murder collide in the most delicious way. This wonderfully observed and brilliantly imagined book put me through all the emotions. I never knew what was coming next, but at every point, it made me fall more in love with life.
All stars
Most relevant
the twists are much later in the book but pay off well - i really liked the narration and the storytelling.

Different and does have twists

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This book has everything, love, hate, humour and sadness, not the kind of thing I normally read but loved it from beginning to end.

Loved it

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This book promised so much in the description and delivered way more! There are so many layers to the writing. Apart from the magical mystery element which is beautifully plotted there’s sibling rivalry, satire, pithy phrases and much humour. I thoroughly recommend this book. You will love it! Great narrator too.

Brilliant!

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a delightful murder investigation by the most unlikely detective, it was as entertaining as it was moving. A beautiful reminder of the gift of life.

As fun as it is moving

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I absolutely loved this book.
Death is such an original and surprisingly lovely protagonist!
Such a warm, witty story following Death taking temporary form in a human body to solve some unplanned deaths and figuring out how to deal with life as a person, with all the emotions that come with that. Including hunger, sleep, and caring about others, particularly the hot scientist Marco!
Such a worthy Comedy Women in Print prize winner. Can’t wait for Veronika DuPont’s next book.
Excellent narration too. I’m disappointed it’s finished!

Brilliantly witty and original

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