When private investigator Shyla Sinclair is invited to the looming mansion of eccentric billionaire Saxton Braith, she’s more than a little suspicious. The last thing she expects to see that night is Braith’s assistant driving an iron rod straight through the back of his skull. Scratch that—the last thing she expects to see is Braith’s resurrection afterward.
Braith can’t die, it turns out, but he has no explanation for his immortality, and very few intact memories of his past. Which is why he wants to pay Shyla millions to investigate him, and bring his long-buried history to light.
Shyla can’t help but be intrigued, but she’s also trapped by the offer. Braith has made it clear that he knows she’s the only person he can trust with his secret, because he knows all about hers.
If you know me at all, you know I am always going to be the first in line for a book/movie/show that blends crime fiction & horror. To me, it’s the very best blend of genres.
Johnny Compton’s latest, DEAD FIRST, promises a delightful mashup of private detective fiction with supernatural horror, and yeah. It delivers. Oof, this was fucking rad!
I had previously read and enjoyed Compton’s debut novel (at least I believe it was his debut), THE SPITE HOUSE. But I struggled with & ultimately set aside his follow-up, DEVILS KILL DEVILS. I’m curious about revisiting that one at some point, though, based on how much I enjoyed DEAD FIRST.
Our main character is Shyla Sinclair, a young Black woman working as a private detective. Over the course of the novel, we learn bits and pieces about the last big case that Shyla worked, one that netted her a pretty sizable payday. It almost gives the reader the vibe that this is book two of a series at times, but goes a long way towards showing that while Shyla isn’t exactly a grizzled veteran private eye here, she’s got some experience under her belt.
Her latest case brings her to the home of a mysterious billionaire, Saxton Braith. This man makes an extremely outlandish claim: he cannot die, and he wants Shyla to figure out why. His memories are…distorted. But oh geez, he backs up his claim with an incredibly gnarly display of his ability to heal. A truly memorable & horrific scene, to be sure.
Shyla is utterly rattled. Her worldview shaken up a bit. But she takes the case.
Shyla is a skeptic, despite what she sees. Her ex-girlfriend Jinh (who happens to be psychic) joins her on the case, and even though there are so many unexplainable things happening, Shyla remains doubtful about the supernatural elements. I think a big part of that is, as we learn, Shyla has a deeply traumatic past. Things that happened in her childhood have shaped her & broken her in many ways. And so for Shyla, she knows all too well that the real monsters in life are human.
Shyla’s investigation is a whirlwind through different parts of Texas, and through Braith’s sordid and bizarre past. There’s violence & super creepy shit around every corner. And Braith’s motivations for hiring Shyla in the first place are murky, at best.
This was so cool! I haven’t read/listened to any interviews with Johnny Compton about this book & whether or not it’s planned as a series, but I think it absolutely has the bones of a really great ongoing series. The book is very much a standalone, but I would love to see more of Shyla and Jinh.
Both Shyla & Jinh are great characters and they have a ton of chemistry between them. They’ve been through some hard times together but there’s still a real romantic spark there.
This is for sure my favorite of Compton’s books so far. DEAD FIRST felt perfectly paced & had a great blend of the detective elements and supernatural/horror elements. This book also features one of the scariest abandoned hospital sequences I’ve ever read, so consider yourself warned. DEAD FIRST gets creepy as hell, features some really interesting historical elements, and has a charismatic, grounded, take-no-shit main character that’s incredibly easy to root for. I loved this book, a lot.
Grimdark Dad 