Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Aug 07, 2011

Marvin rated it:

Charlie Huston is in danger of leading my list as my all-time favorite writer with every book of his I read. I have soared through the Hank Thompson series and the Joe Pitts series. But this is the first stand alone novel of Huston's I've read.

And it is freakin' awesome.

Yeah, the author doesn't know how to use quotation marks. But unlike the pretentiousness of Cormac McCartney and Jose Saramargo, Huston's usage of dashes to connote dialogue moves the plot at neck break More...

9 comments like (8 people liked it)

Apr 16, 2009

Ceridwen rated it:

The Mystic Arts of Washing Your Mouth Out with Soap, Young Man.

So, I really like swearing, cussing, and doing both at once. I'm fond of light blasphemy, I enjoy a good dick joke, and quips about yo mama are almost never not funny. And although I'm sure you, dear reader, think I'm being tongue-in-cheek, I'm not. The majesty of cursing, the f-bombs bursting in air, it all makes me pretty darn happy.

However.

It is possible that this book found my limit. Which is n More...

17 comments like (24 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2009

Mike rated it:

Okay, pal Donny, avert your eyes. I'm sending you my copy tomorrow, or maybe the next day, but I'm also sending you something I think a lot better. But, regardless, I'll expect you to write a really good review of Mr. Huston's latest, making the right and righteous case for his talent, as you have so effectively here. But me?

I'm just not that into him. I think I know from smartass, and as I read through the banter here, I get the sense that every one of the schmoes in this novel More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Mar 09, 2009

Ladiibbug rated it:

1/2 a star is being generous

AWFUL. SIMPLY HORRIBLE. WHAT A WASTE OF PAPER.

Quit after 90 pages.

Unlikeable characters, who all have the emotional and intellectual depth of Beavis & Butthead. Dialog written sounds like the reader is watching the idiotic twosome. Every other word is the "f" word or something similar. I think I lost about 100 brain cells due to dumbing down while reading this book for one hour.

The crime scene cleaning com More...

5 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2009

Rick rated it:

Eating and reading often go well together. An entertaining book and a good meal can make for a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Unless the book happens to be Charlie Huston’s gruesome thriller The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death.

When his roommate tires of his freeloading, Webster “Web” Fillmore Goodhue gets a job in the cutthroat world of trauma-scene cleanup and soon finds himself knee-deep in blood and guts. The detached, sarcastic former teacher discovers that he is not only g

More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

brian rated it:

what mike reynolds said.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2009

Amy rated it:

"The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death" is one of those books I would classify as a guilty pleasure. When discussing fiction with other intellectuals, I would probably disclaim all knowledge of this book. But privately, I LOVED IT and will most assuredly be buying more books by Huston.

This is not the kind of novel a 15-year-old girl should admit to reading, especially to her parents. (And no, I don't fit into that category.) It is also not the kind of novel one More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 17, 2009

Fuzzy rated it:

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death has a great noir vibe, a great center-piece -- the world of trauma cleaning -- and a suitably f'ed up protagonist. The only problem I have is that Charlie Huston does this thing where instead of perfectly normal quotation marks and "he said"s, he just uses long dashes and never attributes a line of dialog. Which is a real shame, because the dialog would just flow in a very natural manner, except that every 3 pages I'd run across a line where I'd have More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 12, 2008

Becky rated it:

Webster Fillmore (for the venue, not the president) Goodhue is an elementary school teacher turned slacker. A class trip violently transformed into a wrong place at the wrong time scenario has rendered him more or less prostrate on the couch--in an apartment he can no longer afford to pay rent on or stock the fridge of--for the six hours a day he's not sleeping. His roommate and oldest friend, tattoo artist Chev, is tired of carrying him, especially since Web seems determined to win the title of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 16, 2009

Laura rated it:

Okay. I'm hooked. I previously read Huston's Caught Stealing and liked it enormously, despite Huston's free-wheeling use of violence and profanity. But here's the thing, Huston manages to do all of that expertly and seemingly effortlessly with a lot of humor, great dialogue, solid characters, and just plain good storytelling.

That's the case with The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death as well. In this story, Huston's main character (Wes) is a former school teacher who basically More...

0 comments like

Mar 09, 2009

Dan rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Feb 16, 2009

Tony rated it:

Huston, Charlie. THE MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH. (2009). ***. Somewhere in this book, there’s a plot. It could probably be written – in outline form – on one page. When the author drags it out for 319 pages, it gets a little tiring. The style reminds me of Truman Capote’s comment on the writings of Jack Kerouac: “That’s not writing; that’s typing.” The story: A young man, Web (short for Webster), a former elementary school teacher, has been loafing for over a year. He h More...

0 comments like

May 10, 2011

Jane rated it:

3 ½ stars. I can’t say I really liked it, but I enjoyed the experience. It will gross you out in an entertaining way.

STORY BRIEF:
Web is a slacker - hasn’t worked for a year or more. He has no car and lives with his friend Chev who feeds him. Chev is a tattoo artist. Web’s mother sends him money when he asks. His parents are divorced. His mother is high or on drugs most of the time but seems to have plenty of money from her organic blackberry business. Web’s dad is a scr More...

0 comments like

Jan 29, 2011

Holly rated it:

On the one hand, the author really conveys the despair that Web has fallen into. Something terrible has happened and it effected him deeply. He is free falling into hell. His last friend standing is watching him fall and can't do anything to stop him and is tired of watching him self destruct. He doesn't know how much longer he can be there. The author really does a good job showing the "grit" of this. But the overuse of the "F" bomb got to me. I think, and I am not making th More...

0 comments like

Aug 29, 2010

Charles rated it:

Cleaning with a booster shot of Pulp Fiction. More edginess, More grit. More attitude. More action. More dysfunctional relationships. And yes, more cursing - a whole lot more. In this instance even Pulp Fiction would blush. Is it over the top? Maybe, but it fits the characters and the setting - the dirty underbelly of LA. And, at just over 300 pages Mystic comes in just the right dosage - too much more and it would have worn itself out. Too much more and you might find yourself reaching for the More...

0 comments like

Jul 19, 2010

Ian rated it:

Part of me almost wishes that I didn't know Alan Ball and Huston are turning this one into an HBO show before I read it, because my genuine enjoyment of the book was almost overshadowed by the way I kept picturing how you could turn these characters and this setting into a continuing series, whether you would want to do this particular story first or at all, and wondering who they'd get to play Web, Soledad, Po Sin, and so on.

But I'm also glad I knew about the TV deal, because this More...

0 comments like

May 02, 2010

Lucinda rated it:

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death (Ballantine 2009) is the very strange story of former Los Angeles elementary school teacher Web Goodhue. For reasons that become clear later, we meet Web in his total slacker phase, leeching off his friend Chev, who runs a tattoo parlor, and the occasional donations from his hippie mother, who grows blackberries and marijuana in Oregon. Just as Chev reaches the end of his generosity, Po Sin, owner of a crime scene cleanup business, offers Web a job. More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Apr 21, 2010

Mykle rated it:

This book combines an unbeatable and scrupulously-researched concept -- noir fiction about the people who clean up dead bodies! -- with an intricately structured crime story -- needy femme fatale draws hero into dangerous smuggling operation, and is then kidnapped! -- and a colorful cast of characters -- Chinese-American kung-fu father figure who is morbidly obese! -- and the whole thing screams I COULDN'T SELL THIS AS A SCREENPLAY SO I FIGURED I'D JUST WRITE IT AS A BOOK AND LICENSE THE FILM R More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 21, 2010

Brett rated it:

First things first, Charlie Huston is one of my favorite authors. His (Henry Thompson) trilogy Caught Stealing: A Novel, Six Bad Things: A Novel & A Dangerous Man: A Novel is one of my favorites and "Six Bad Things" is one of my favorite books.

"The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death" is pure Charlie Huston, but it didn't floor me like his other work. I enjoyed his other stand alone novel The Shotgun Rule: A Novel too, even it was a little better then this More...

0 comments like

Mar 29, 2010

Michael rated it:

When I first finished The Mystic Art of Erasing All Signs of Death--the first Charlie Huston book I ever read--the first thing I did was check out the Amazon reviews. Upon closing the book, I knew this was going to be one of those tomes that would divide both casual and hardcore readers alike. The reason for this isn't necessarily the content or the plot--a fun, foul-mouthed story about a disgruntled slacker with a past who finds himself working for a cleaning company that specializes in post-mo More...

0 comments like

Feb 10, 2010

Eric rated it:

This is one of those books where the plot got in the way of the story. I liked all the characters in it and found their banter and day to day lives very entertaining. Once the plot got going - and it takes a while to do so - I enjoyed it less. There's a lot of cussing (if you edited out the cussing the book would probably be 50 pages lighter), a lot of crass humor, and some pretty graphic descriptions of crime scenes. The main character works for a crime scene cleanup company. I would guess More...

0 comments like

Jan 11, 2010

Jake rated it:

Charlie Huston writes light and fluffy, entertaining crime stories. They're usually dark, usually involve an interesting element (vampires, baseball, etc) and usually exit your memory the second you finish the final sentence. I've enjoyed four or five of his previous novels, but I couldn't tell you the name of a single character. Which is weird, because Huston usually goes out of his way to slap every single character with a weird trait (stolen kidney, vampire....). Problem is, you tend to remem More...

0 comments like

Oct 05, 2009

W.D. rated it:

Yeah, not quite "early" as the book has been out since January and I actually finished the book about a week ago, but better late than never. I first found out about Charlie Huston through comics. He was the writer for the beginning of the Moon Knight restart. All of his issues were top notch and some of the best comics I've read recently. So when I saw the listing of The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death on the Early Reviewers list, I requested and hoped I would get it.
More...

0 comments like

Jul 25, 2009

Kathleen added it

The Mystic Art of Erasing All Signs of Death, by Charlie Huston B-plus, narrated by Paul Michael Garcia, produced by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Webster Fillmore Goodhue (nicknamed Web) is a young man suffering probably from PTSD due to an experience he had while teaching school. He couldn’t go back to teaching school, and for a while he lived with his best friend, (they also had a past which had problems) and Web continued to be very depressed and to do little to More...

0 comments like

Mar 26, 2009

Trilby rated it:

Reviewers of this book seem either to love or to hate it. I'm obviously the exception, as I found it middling amusing. Over-the-top violence and nonstop vulgar language are what's not to like in this so-called "pulp noir" novel. However, I grew to like the narrator, whose job might just be unique in fiction: a cleaner of scenes where people have died violently, or where bodies have lain for a while. He's a messed-up 20-something with a very messed-up set of parents. One of the chara More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 21, 2009

Stephanie rated it:

This amazing novel stars the flawed, sarcastic “Web” Goodhue as a late-20’s slacker in Southern California who is given the opportunity to make some money as a crime-scene cleaner. The author, Charlie Huston, is known for his hard-boiled vampire detective Joe Pitt novels. He is at the top of his form with THE MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH.
As Web begins his new job, he falls for the daughter of a suicide victim, and he’s drawn into a territory war and a theft ring.
The tit More...

0 comments like

Mar 31, 2011

Gina rated it:

I first picked this book up while browsing my local bookstore several months ago. The cover and title looked intriguing, and I wondered just how interesting a mystery story would be based on a character that cleaned up after all the 'official' crime-scene folks were finished. Was there a story left after the fingerprints were lifted, samples gathered, pictures taken, and the detectives were chasing down leads? I put the book down and tucked the thought away in a far corner of my brain for ano More...

0 comments like

Nov 12, 2010

Brad rated it:

Here's a crime novel which really isn't about crime--it's about character. Namely, the character Webster Fillmore Goodhue. at the start of Charlie Huston's novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, Web is a slacker, sharing an apartment with his childhood friend, a tattoo artist. He does nothing but sleep and read horror movie magazines, and act like a dick.

It seem that Web used to be a teacher, and when we learn that he has an abnormal aversion to riding buses, it becomes More...

0 comments like

Jun 07, 2009

K rated it:

Set in Los Angeles, in the pulp fiction tradition, heavy on cuss-filled dialogue pepped with roundabout ways of implying that one has slept with the mother of one's conversation partner. Told in first person by a former elementary school teacher in his mid 20s suffering from PTSD, which he manifests by being a layabout and alienating everybody he knows. Circumstances conspire to make him take a job with a cleaning company--as in the people called to clean up crime scenes and the bloated remain More...

0 comments like

Jan 15, 2011

Dora rated it:

I was excited to pick this up-- it sounded like a gritty, stylish pulpy novel about some real dirty work in LA. It had interesting reviews, and I also heard it was recently considered by HBO for a TV series.

But I didn't really like it. I am giving it 3 stars because I feel conflicted. I almost outright hated it for certain stylistic reasons. For one thing, I just loathed the lack of quotation marks and how dialogue was indicated through dashes. Not only does that annoy me stylistically More...

0 comments like