Book Recommendation: Any More Questions for the Corpse?

Book Recommendation: Any More Questions for the Corpse?

Any More Questions for the Corpse? (Scheduled publication date: August 25, 2026, Crooked Lane Books, Penguin Random House) is the debut novel by author J. J. (Jack) Unthank. Click on the link to reach the website to learn more about the author and this book.

When a young necromancer investigates a string of deaths in the hidden magical capital of England, the dead come back to haunt him—in more ways than one.

Twenty-one-year-old Malowin Gladstone was raised by the dead—two skeletons to be precise. While his parents keep a close eye-socket on him, he just wants to get through the rest of university without using any more of his much-loathed necromancy. A hope that gets all the more difficult when he’s recruited by a secret Order to hunt a serial killer.

Dunwich, the hidden magical capital of England, has its fair share of oddities, its most recent being a series of murders that have the police at a dead end. But Detective Walters has an unorthodox suggestion. Who better to find a killer than someone who can talk to the dead? He proposes Mal use his necromancy for good, and solve the case before it goes stone-cold.

As more bodies begin to drop, Mal befriends several misfits who help him unearth the culprit. Among them, Des, a fledgling vampire; Hala, a magical empath; and Yu, a shapeshifting genius.

The team put their unique set of skills to the task, but as they get closer to digging up the truth, the group’s ghosts come back to haunt them and the killer won’t rest until they’re all dead and buried. Goodreads

Jack Unthank was born in Andover, Hampshire in 1994. He regrets this but had very little say in the matter. To avoid his hometown he stuck his head in fantasy books and video games, and had a habit of writing stories of his own. He studied computer science at the University of Bath, a degree he would use for seven or so years in the video game industry as a programmer. This career came to a close when chronic illness crept up behind him and unceremoniously bonked him on the head, taking him out of action. With a lot of time on his hands, and never getting out of the habit of writing stories, he tried turning one into a book. He currently lives in Cardiff with his wife and two cats.