ALIVE IN NECROPOLIS

Colma, California, is the only incorporated city in America where the dead outnumber the living. A “cemetery city” serving San Francisco, Colma is the resting place of the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Wyatt Earp, and William Randolph Hearst. It is also the home of Michael Mercer, a rookie cop trying to go by the book as he struggles to navigate a new realm of grown-up relationships—including a shaky romance with an older woman, a burgeoning alliance with his cocky, charismatic partner Nick Toronto, fading friendships from his civilian life, and an aching sense of responsibility for a local rich kid whom Mercer rescues from a dangerous cemetery prank.

But instead of settling comfortably into adult life, Mercer becomes obsessed with the mysterious fate of his predecessor in the Colma PD, Sergeant Wes Featherstone, who seems to have spent his last years policing the dead as well as the living. As Mercer delves deeper into Featherstone’s story, his own sanity starts to slip, too—either that, or Colma’s more famous residents are not resting in peace as they should be.

With all the eerie playfulness of Haruki Murakami and the intrepid imagination of a young T.C. Boyle, but with a voice and vision all his own, Doug Dorst has fused suspenseful, atmospheric storytelling with unabashed creativity and craftsmanship into an irresistible, unforgettable debut.