Penny Ponders On The Wages Of Dying
Yes, it’s Vampires — and No, it’s not what you expect
The Wages of Dying by Meghan Purvis is a book of surprises. The author is an accomplished and award-winning writer, but this is her first novel. It’s hugely well researched and engulfs you in the world of the story. But don’t expect a standard vampire tale. As one reviewer noted:
Yes, it IS a story involving vampires, but it’s also about mobsters and booze traffickers and above all about PEOPLE.
Meghan Purvis herself took the road trip that her heroine, Ruby Davis, is forced to take — New York to New Orleans. Reading the book, it feels as though it must have been written by someone who was there, and I found myself working out her likely age on the assumption that she was a teenager in the 1920s. Turns out she’d be approaching her 120th birthday which I deemed unlikely, even before I discovered that she is considerably younger than I am. She’s just an exceptionally good writer.
Quoting again from that same review:
It’s written with the assurance, control and sheer skill of a much more experienced author and the quality of language is impressive. The settings are vivid, the characterisations excellent and the narrative pace brisk but perfectly regulated.
