The definitive novel about celebrity grave-robbing: completely original, very black, and very funny.
Jay Mason is experiencing a crisis of faith. Disillusioned with his calling as a Deacon in the Anglican Church of Geneva, and estranged from his pregnant girlfriend, he's about to fall into the murky world of celebrity grave-robbing. His church has been bought by the shadowy antiquities dealer Joseph Moholy, who arrives to claim its most interesting asset: the toe bone of Thomas - Becket. Moholy has a large collection of dubiously acquired relics and is keen to add to his collection. Jay, he decides, is the man to assist him. Jay finds that grave-robbing can be both lucrative and thrilling, however morally troubling for a man of God, and in Switzerland's cemeteries he finds a rich cast to work on: James Joyce, Richard Burton, John Calvin and Charlie Chaplin all receive his midnight attentions. But Moholy is a ruthless man whose ambitions are perilously high, and as Jay assists him in his search for the holy grail of relics, he puts himself and his loved ones in serious danger.
Author Biography
Richard Beard studied at Cambridge, the Open University and the University of East Anglia. He is the author of five books, X20, Damascus, The Cartoonist, Muddied Oafs and Dry Bones.
Reviews
Excellent-Beard is a hugely playful novelist-Dry Bones is scabrous and profane, but also very human in a good way, and probably a little bit profound too,A roller-coaster philosophical journey of Stoppard-like brilliance-Combining angst and farce in equal measure, Dry Bones is a very English comedy: Graham Greene meets David Lodge,One of the most ingenious, resourceful and entertaining novelists in England,'Beard's writing can be breathtaking','Richard Beard's prose is dry, nonchalant and fluent'
