City of the Dead, by Herbert Lieberman

Many, many years ago, a friend and I saw a copy of Herbert Lieberman's City of the Dead in a used bookstore. It was the same cover you see to the left of these words. We thought it might be a flesh-eating zombie story in the vein of George Romero. We thought that was exciting, as preposterous as that might seem today. Imagine it, being excited about a zombie book. Times change, and usually not for the better.

We were wrong. City of the Dead is not a zombie novel. It's one hell of a lot more disturbing than that.

Paul Konig has an intimate relationship with the dead. He knows them, and in his way, loves them. They parade through his life every day, whispering their ghastly stories to him. Paul Konig is the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City.

Dr. Konig is a professional man. Possibly the best in the world at his job. He is content in the logical world of dead bodies. Their mysteries are easy for him to solve by now, and despite the horrible way that humankind treats itself, the facts are absolute in a corpse. Paul Konig has seen it all.

In the city mortuary, Dr. Konig is a ruthless yet fair commander. He handles his people not unlike he does medical instruments. They are all tools at his disposal, which are needed to accomplish his job, which is to rob the dead of their secrets, and hopefully find and bring to justice the guilty parties. But things have gotten out of his control of late.

In a profession where the worst atrocities are seen daily, a particularly sickening discovery is made. Mutilated, dismembered body parts are found and Konig must put the pieces literally together to find his answers. His office is in the middle of an embarrassing scandal, and the blame is publicly falling upon his weary shoulders. Underlings more interested in political rising than tending the dead are seeking to discredit and replace him. And worst of all, his estranged daughter is being held for ransom by a deranged group of radical leftists.

But the title refers to more than the human heart to stop. Blood to stop coursing through a body's veins. The dead are all around us. The city kills our passions, our convictions, our decency. It sucks what made us bright and enthusiastic in our youths and turns us us into soulless beings not unlike what are seen in movies like Dawn of the Dead.

I read City of the Dead way back in the early 80's. I can't quite say that I enjoyed it, because this isn't the sort of novel you really enjoy. Admire, yes, respect, absolutely. I recommend City of the Dead, even though it is one of the bleakest and most unpleasant books I've ever read. Re-reading it almost thirty years later, I find that City of the Dead has lost none of its power to disturb and to make me think.

You may not know the name, Herbert Lieberman, and that's a shame. He is one of the most neglected, under-read writers I know of. I'm certain that he sold a lot of books in his day, but somehow he isn't remembered as he should be. If anyone knows him, it's probably because of his second novel, Crawlspace, which was made into a TV movie that more people know about than have actually seen, I think. Lieberman wrote numerous other books, most of which are provocative and genuinely disturbing.

Crawlspace is a fantastic book, which was made into a decent, but inferior movie of the week. The Eighth Square reminds me of an Ira Levin book, but better. And, no, I haven't forgotten how good A Kiss Before Dying, The Boys From Brazil, or Rosemary's Baby are. The Climate of Hell deals with a Nazi who is modeled after Josef Mengele, who is hiding in South America. Nightbloom is a serial killer novel with a fiendish twist, which was written long before everyone was trying to ape Thomas Harris's success.

Look for any of those books I just listed. Or, if you have a strong constitution and a taste for the dark side of humanity, dig up a copy of City of the Dead and you'll find out just how frightening the dead can be.