7.6 /10 1 Votes
Cover artist Fred Marcellino Language English Pages 278pp Followed by A Graveyard for Lunatics Publisher Alfred A. Knopf | 3.8/5 Goodreads Country United States Publication date October 1985 Originally published October 1985 Genre Mystery ISBN 0-394-54702-0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) Similar Ray Bradbury books, Speculative fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Death Is a Lonely Business is a mystery novel by Ray Bradbury published in 1985. The story, set in 1949, is about a series of murders that happen in Venice, California, then a declining seaside community in Los Angeles where Bradbury lived from 1942 to 1950. The main character and narrator (who never mentions his name) is a sensitive, modest writer, with a girlfriend studying in Mexico City. In the course of the story he meets Elmo Crumley, a detective who helps him solve the mystery behind all the semi-murders occurring among a series of eccentric characters in the forgotten town.
Plot introduction
The books biography lists this as Bradbury's first novel since Something Wicked This Way Comes, although the young adult novel The Halloween Tree was published later. It evokes both the milieu and style of other mystery writers Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Ross Macdonald, all of whom Bradbury names in the book's dedication, and James Crumley, after whom Bradbury named his detective. Yet the main character is undoubtedly Bradbury himself, portrayed in a period of his life just before his marriage and his success with The Martian Chronicles.
Two sequels followed: A Graveyard for Lunatics (1990), and Let's All Kill Constance (2003), advancing the writer's career to 1954 and 1960, respectively.