Sepultura (Necropolis) Paperback – 8 Jan. 2018

Office politics. A lot of us experience it every working day and take it on the chin as a necessary evil. But, oh to be able to knife your annoying colleague to death and get away with it Scot free. Not just work colleagues; what if someone in your personal life was getting on your pecks. Just get rid of them; right? If that sounds acceptable to you, you are on the periphery of Dyson Devereux’s world. But you’re not there yet. You need impeccable taste in clothes and all matters sartorial, a refined palate, a mastery of at least five languages, an arsenal of withering put downs and a ravenous sex drive.This second book in the series sees Dyson putting in the hours as a dutiful father. Little Horatio is a chip off the old block and his Latin is coming on a treat. Torn away from paternal matters for a work trip to Italy, Dyson is in high demand, being the only member of his work delegation to speak Italian. Dyson’s translations are well received by his Italian counterparts and by one young lady in particular. His bosses are less impressed but it’s water off a duck’s back to Dyson; he has far bigger fish to fry.Somewhere between an all too real parody of the absurdity of office life, a diary of a psychopath and a reader’s wives confessional, this is so entertaining it’s in a bracket of its own. Take the weight off and dive in.

Very well written! Right from the start it drew me in with great imagery and observation which I could relate to. Almost every page made me chuckle or laugh out loud. Guy Portman seems to be a future star and I will certainly be following his future releases.

Right, hands up who loves reading about seriously off the scale sociopaths? Well then, let me introduce you to Dyson Devereux, Paleham Council’s very own Head of Burials and Cemeteries.Sepultura is the 2nd book in the Dyson Devereux series and, having not read the first (Necropolis), I can testify that this can be read as a standalone. There are a couple of fleeting references back to book 1 but knowledge of these aren’t really essential to allow you to enjoy this one. That said, I will no doubt be going back and reading book 1 at some point in the future as I was a big fan of this one.Dyson is such an interesting character and, while he did remind me a great deal of Patrick Bateman from Ellis’ American Psycho, I’m happy that we Brits can finally have a fictional sociopath to call our own. Immaculately attired with an appreciation for the finer things in life and a habit of being easily irritated by the important things in life (such as the choice of tie against colour of shirt), Dyson is a tightly coiled spring that is just ready to pop at any moment. Only, he’ll wait….and strike when the moment is right! He is also extremely cool and calculated when dealing with difficult questions on the ‘disappearance’ of some of his acquaintances, which leads to some brilliant scenes with his boss and the police.This is probably one of the few books that I read with a constant smile on my face, which is no mean feat given the graphic nature of some of the book. There is a dark humour that runs throughout and, in a very strange way, you find yourself pulling for a guy that has absolutely no empathy for any other human being in this world. His method of naming the people around him based on their attributes rather than their names meant that half the time we don’t really know (or care) what their real names are, to the extent that when a real name does get mentioned you think to yourself “Who’s Bryan”? As mentioned previously, some of the scenes are fairly graphic, but these really go a long way in demonstrating the mindset of a sociopath. You get the feeling there is no rage, enjoyment or sexual element he’s getting out of it, there’s just….nothing! In many ways it is this cold, calculated mindset that helps Dyson cruise through life in the manner he does with probably very little fluctuation in heart rate, except when he sees a rather vulgar shirt/tie combination.I know some of you may be thinking I’ve not said much about the story here, and there is one…a good one, but the real story for me is Dyson Devereux. A man who’s head I would happily get into as he goes for a wander around the Marks and Spencer food hall on Christmas Eve. Now THAT would be fun!!If you fancy something a little different, with an edginess to it, but still with that dark humour interspersed throughout, then I can highly recommend you give this one a go. A really enjoyable read and definitely an author whose other works I will definitely be checking out.

This was yet another fantastic book and it was great to follow along with more of Dyson’s life and see what happened following his departure from Newton Council and his police encounters due to the missing people surrounding him starting to pile up!In Sepultura, we follow Dyson and his new role as the head of Burials and Cemetries in Paleham Council. He’s now a father and has his son Horatio, which made for very funny interactions as he tried to teach him Latin at the age of three and complained about his table manners. We get to see him utilise his Italian skills as a translator for the council and their Twin-Town scheme with the Italian town, Rovito and we also watch how he deals with the unsightly and downright annoying humans who try to get in his way and make his life harder.Just like with Necropolis, this was filled with the dark humour that we’ve come to love and Dyson trying to make his way through meeting and communicating with new humans and fantastic ways of describing them and how much they irritate and annoy him. His nicknames were yet again, on point, and I love that I don’t even know the real names of the some of the more prominent side characters, just their nicknames and how Dyson knows them. I think it makes it so much easier to remember certain characters and let’s be honest, it’s realistic – especially for someone like Dyson who doesn’t have the time or even care to learn people’s name.I really enjoyed the ending to this too; I don’t want to spoil it but I’m really interested to see where it goes and how Dyson is going to get himself out of this as being charming can only get you so far! It also seemed like the most logical ending and I’m glad that Guy took it down that route as any other route would have seemed force or vastly unrealistic and one of the things I love about Necropolis and Sepultura is the realism and relatability to Dyson’s everyday life and surroundings, special living in the UK myself.I really would recommend picking this up if you’ve read Necropolis, it’s the perfect sequel and has only cemented how much I love hearing about Dyson and his activities despite how much I probably shouldn’t.

I’m a huge fan of transgressive fiction and very familiar with the genre, so I had some idea of what to expect when I began Sepultura, but this book honestly blew away all my expectations. I had no idea that I was going to totally fall in love with the main character, Dyson, for one thing. And for another, I was shocked to find myself not only liking him, but actually rooting for him at every turn. Every time he killed someone I was just so happy about it that I started to feel like maybe I was a little crazy myself.And it’s definitely the overwhelming charisma of Dyson Devereux that makes Sepultura such a delicious experience for the reader. I haven’t come across such an engaging character in a long time. He’s brilliant, sophisticated, snarky, cold as a snake, and oh-so-weirdly likeable. This sounds like an extremely odd thing to say about a serial killer, but I felt like he was someone I wanted to be friends with. I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side, of course, but that was also part of the beauty of Dyson’s character and the story overall. The people who do get on his bad side, well, you get it. They’re the people that we all fantasize about killing, whether we want to admit it or not. The super annoying coworker that tries to undermine you at every turn. The possessive person who’s dating your ex and is out-of-control jealous of you. All those people that, at one time or another, you just want to throw into a pit. Dyson throws those people into a pit for you. And it’s incredibly satisfying.I will definitely be gifting this book to friends and rereading it myself. It’s just damn good. I highly enjoyed it.

This is the first book of Mr. Portman's that I have read, and I have to say that I absolutely enjoyed it. This is a dark comedy with twisted humor full of mystery and thrillers. I found this to be a page turner. The dark humor had me literally laughing out loud. I liked it so much that I bought the series. It did remind me of the show Dexter. If you enjoy enigmatic serial killers, then you'll enjoy Necropolis Series. Thank you Hidden Gems for introducing me to a new author. I look forward to reading more of your work.

I expected a lot from Dyson and more importantly Guy Portman after being so pleased with Necropolis. Neither disappointed. I love the author and character and cannot wait for another possible installment.