What a tangled web...

"There's nothing like a PowerPoint presentation to stamp out green shoots of happiness, especially one involving sound and visual effects." This is the dry humor you'll find in Richard Roper's debut novel, How Not to Die Alone. This is a workplace rom-com with a twist.

Andrew works in a government office that deals with people who have been found dead in their homes with no obvious next-of-kin. Andrew and his coworkers have to enter the homes after the person has been removed and search for anything they can find that might give them a clue as to who might want to know that this person has died. They also need to look for anything they can that might help pay for the person's funeral. It's a grim job, but someone has to do it. It also sheds light on how important it is to stay in touch with those who matter to you and to check on your elderly neighbors.

Andrew is someone who has no next-of-kin. His parents and his sister have all died, and he has no other family. The problem is that he's told his coworkers all about his wife, Diane, and their two kids, David and Stephanie. Andrew has a spreadsheet that helps him keep track of the details he's told everyone about his family, including allergies, hobbies, and proclivities. Everyone in the office believes him; they don't have a reason not to, but then Peggy comes on board. Peggy, who shares Andrew's sense of humor and is everything he could want in a partner, believes that he's very happily married with two children. So now what?

This book reminded me of a few things:

• the story of Joyce Vincent, a London woman who died and was not discovered for more than three years in her apartment (and the documentary about her, Dreams of a Life)
• the rom-com While You Were Sleeping, in which Sandra Bullock falls in love with Peter Gallagher without ever actually meeting him, and his family comes to believe they were engaged. It's a lie that she can't see her way out of once she stumbled into it.

This book is a 4/5 for me. I felt for Andrew and his situation, and the humor was wry and British. This would be a good vacation book, on the off chance that anyone is taking a vacation this summer! Maybe read it in your back yard. ;)

There is a trigger warning for this book for a scene about suicidal ideation, and there is a lot of discussion about death, grief, and loneliness.