Coffin's Got the Dead Guy on the Inside (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An edgy thriller that moves from the underground music scene of southern California to the high-tech world of Silicon Valley, Keith Snyder's latest is a return trip with Jason Keltner, a starving artist and composer of electronic music who's drawn into a world where reality is a construct that depends on the hardware that creates it. When multimedia guru Huey Benton dies at a party in front of Jason's eyes, it seems at first to be an alcohol-stimulated accident. But things are not always as they appear. Jason begins to suspect that Paul Reno--the computer genius he's been asked to watch--may be involved in the death. All Jason really wants is to finish his latest composition and find a title for it, but when mysterious men start following him and threatening his life, not to mention his somewhat stalled career, he's forced to take a more active role in protecting a piece of computer hardware known as a dongle from people with no compunctions about committing murder to get their hands on it. Coffin's Got the Dead Guy on the Inside is an interesting take on a part of the music world that will be new to many readers. It is written by a multimedia designer, composer, and filmmaker who introduced his unlikely hero in Show Control. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

The title of this offbeat, mostly engaging but occasionally too cute, story is the answer to "What's the difference between a cello and a coffin?" That's one of several musician jokes traded by underemployed electronic composer Jason Keltner and his friend Norton Platt at the start of Snyder's second Keltner adventure (after Show Control, 1996). Platt, a shadowy figure with connections to the world of intelligence, offers Jason a paying job keeping an eye on a mutual friend, Paul Reno, who is hanging with a new crowd ("a little seedier and a little more serious than his usual") and who gets involved in software theft and a possible homicide. Paul is a royal pain, rude and condescending to Jason and his friends?Robert, a very tall actor, and Martin, "an occasional graphic artist" and aspiring knife fighter. One problem readers will have is understanding why someone doesn't punch Paul out sooner than it happens. Other readers may take issue with Snyder's reliance on scenes involving clunky old cars, a device that's refreshing for only the first few turns. Most of these objections will be made between bouts of laughter, however, as Snyder delivers dialogue that is often strikingly original and adroitly paced. His edgy, appealing characters and deft evocations of seedy Southern California urban life make return visits with Keltner and his cohorts a welcome prospect. Editor, Michael Seidman.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 287 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802733204
• ISBN-13: 978-0802733207
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,058,967 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious Mystery. Couldn't stop laughing., September 13, 2002

By	Mark Baker (Santa Clarita, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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All Jason Keltner wants to do is get out of Pasadena by himself and work on composing some music, especially Untitled #23. But, with rent overdue, he agrees to watch his ex-friend Paul Reno to see what he's up to. After all, the money's not bad.

Paul is up to no good, as always. When Jason and Paul go to a party, their host falls down dead. Soon, goons are chasing the two of them; which isn't a good thing, considering Jason's beat up, almost classic car. Paul is obviously hiding something, and Jason just doesn't know who to trust. So, he enlists the help of his friends Robert and Martin. But are they in over their heads? And, if so, can they stay one step ahead of everyone who's after them?

First, the bad. This book just jumps in and never fully explains the relationships between some of the characters. I was confused for the first 30 pages or so as to who was who and why some characters were treating each other the way they were. Part of that is probably because this is the second in the series, but a little more background would have been nice.

However, once I got beyond those first 30 pages, I fell under the book's unique spell. The book was written exactly for my sarcastic, punny sense of humor, and I found myself laughing out loud at the banter between Jason, Mitch, and Robert. And the chicken wing/celery/ranch dressing debate is not to be missed. The plot starts a little slowly, but quickly picks up speed as the story progresses. While sometimes the characters seem to come too quickly, if you work at it, you can keep track of everyone and whose side they're really on.

This book requires a little extra concentration then many I normally read to keep everything straight, but it's completely worth it. Keith Snyder has earned himself a new fan, and I can't wait to catch up on Jason, Robert, and Mitch's other adventures.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great title, but disappointing story, November 8, 2001

By	Reader in Des Moines - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coffin's Got the Dead Guy on the Inside (Mass Market Paperback)

Keith Snyder's books were recommended to me by my bookseller, so I was eager to try them out. I picked this one because I thought the title was catchy. Turns out, the title is by far the best thing about this book. What a disappointment!

COFFIN'S GOT THE DEAD GUY is the kind of book a person might write if everything they knew about life came from watching TV. In other words, it has none of the realism or aura of truth that a story needs to make it believable. You can't just rip an old plot off the "Late, Late Show," throw in a couple of computers, and call that a book.

The story is overrun with so many characters, who hardly seem any different from each other, that its tough to keep track of who is who! Their dialog, though, is even worse. The author puts sentences into his chracters mouths that real people never say. It's almost as if he was more interested in showing us he owned a dictionary than in writing real characters.

Snyder's writing is not bad on a sentence by sentence level. It's as good as you'd see in any high school creative writing class. But when its taken alltogether, it falls under its own weight.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coffin, December 7, 1999

By A Customer

Keith Snyder's Coffin has all the elements that make his work worth reading: great dialogue; believable characters that you either want to date or mother (at least if you're female!); a plot which moves along quickly, but never expectedly; and continued insight into that unknown-to-women realm of male friendships. An absolute delight to read.