Grab Your Edition Heuer Lost And Found Written By A.B. Funkhauser Published As Digital Edition

story is quirky, original, sometimes gross and often funny I honestly couldn't put this book down until it was finished, At times, the book reminded me of Six Feet Under, I loved the characters, as warped as they were, they were so endearing, especially Enid, A fun read looking forward to more from this author, I didnt know what to make of this at first, and then I was half way through it, and then I was at the end, . . but I didn't want it to be over, Funkhauser made me learn new words like “aegis” and then I was laughing too hard to notice that I was actually at a sad part, Like Breaking Bads Walter White, Heuer is not a likeable man, but I somehow found myself rooting for him, A strange, complicated character. I have to look at him again, I hope there'll be more where this came from! Heuer Lost and Found was not necessarily my cup of tea, With that said, I had trouble putting the book down, I was completely drawn in and needed to know what was going to happen next, I had trouble understanding why Heuer was the way he was, until I 'met' his parents, If you are looking for a page turner, I definitely recommend this book,
The world A. B. Funkhauser draws us into in Heuer, Lost and Found isn't a familiar one for ninety percent of us, Make that ninetyfive. Even if you're a devotee of Six Feet Under, you'll step into strange territory when you enter the confines of the Weibigand Brothers Funeral home and the mind of Jurgen Heuer.


To describe almost anything about the plot here is to act the spoiler, but I do have to mention that Heuer is dead, though we don't realize that for a page or two, and that he's watching his corporeal substance decompose on his office floor.
It's both intriguing and amusing to observe him experimenting with the freedom and limits of his new form of being and his interaction with his fellow ghosts one of whom inhabits a lamp.
All that is humorous in itself, but important to the plot as well, for each new discovery helps advance the action while we try to figure out what's going to become of his earthly estate and of the live humans he's left behind.


Meanwhile, back at the funeral home whose employees eventuallyand I do mean eventuallyarrives to cart him away, we find an aging establishment on the skids filled with quirky sometimes savage characters.
Each of these folks has a mission of some sort to fulfill, and all of them work hard to manipulate the others to help them, Even the Rat. Yep. Rat is an important character, The novel is a yeasty mix of plot and people, and Funkhauser's zesty prose keeps you smiling even through the most gruesome scenes,

And some of them are truly gruesome, Few of us are acquainted with the details of embalming Funkhauser is a funeral director herself, especially on a desiccated corpse, and even fewer of us are anxious to find out.
Yet, I never averted my eyes or skipped a page, so well are the details integrated into action and character, If there is a flaw with Heuer, it's that there are a great many players and moving parts, and sometimes they tumble over each other so fast that confusion ensues.
But that didn't stop me from surfing on and enjoying it all, Funkhauser has a sequel, Scooter Nation, coming out in March, and I plan to get right in line to buy it, You should, too. After you read Heuer, of course, Mesmerizing, gritty, hilarious, and unlike anything you've ever read before, I could not put this book down, Seriously, you will not be disappointed, Multifaceted characters layered into a modern plot with plenty of sub cues based in the past, Heuer and Enid in their own way are similar so it makes sense that theyd come together again even if the circumstances are strange, Though spirit and funeral director never meet face to face, their simpatico is strong and their conversations are heartbreaking and real, The staff at the funeral parlour are good for laughs! Charlie, Dougie and poor old Robert the intern, who has to put up with a lot, break the tension and keep this thing rattling to a poignant conclusion.
Ms. A. B Funkhauser is a brilliant and wacky writer incapable of dumbing things down and amen for that, Her distinctive voice tells an intriguing story that mixes moral conflicts with dark humor, not too mention booze and cigarettes,

The books title refers to the lead character, a lawyer who dies in his home, As the body decomposes, the mans spirit experiences euphoria, rage, disappointment and eventually hope, One of my favourite characters Enid, an employee of the Weibigand Brothers Funeral Home where Heuer now resides just happens to be Heuer the dead lawyers former girlfriend, and as we relive the flawed recollections of their murky pastit really poses the question.
How do we deal with death Unrepentant cooze hound lawyer Jürgen Heuer dies suddenly and unexpectedly in his litterstrewn home, Undiscovered, he rages against God, Nazis, deep fryers, and analogous women who disappoint him,

At last found, he is delivered to Weibigand Brothers Funeral Home, a ramshackle establishment peopled with above average eccentrics, including boozy Enid, a former girlfriend with serious denial issues.
With her help and the help of a wise cracking spirit guide, Heuer will try to move on to the next plane, But before he can do this, he must endure an inept embalming, feral whispers, and Enids flawed recollections of their murky past, Is it really worth it My review is also on Amazon under the title's ebook page:

Deft prose and richly drawn characters highlight dark comedy, and Funkhauser's knowledge of the industry she illuminates is gripping, adding immersive depth to the world she creates inside the funeral parlor.
All of this coupled with gonzo humor provides an often hilarious, often squeamish page turner, An excellent novel more than worthy of your time, Not really horror or occult, this book mixes soul searching with some pretty off the wall humor, When a lawyer dies in his home with his spirit body for company, he must pass the time reminiscing with the walls while learning to move objects with his mind.
Once his bodys found by a sexy coroner he madly wants to date, he finds himself stuck at a funeral home with a bunch of odd strangers including an ex girlfriend who likes to drink.
What does a guy have to do to get on with his after life Scaring the crabby neighbor is a start, I enjoyed this book because its extremely witty and the characters do really unexpected things like house breaking and scaring mourners at funerals, Perfect for anyone who likes gallows humor! Heuer, the lawyer, is not a likeable character, but by the end of the book you are rooting for him to succeed in being "found".
The other players in this macabre drama are a hodgepodge of oddballs that bring to life a few days of goings on at Weibigand's funeral home, The story is character driven and the reader is drawn in by the various foibles that make up different aspects of human personality, A. B. funkhauser has done an excellent job of showing the realities of the funeral business and it makes for very enlightened reading, Well done. Fellow author and international best seller Bernard Foong graciously penned this review, but was unable to upload it on Goodreads due to technical problems, At his request, I very happily reproduce it here, Thank you, friend.

"Author A. B. Funkhauser strikes a macabre cord with her book "Heuer Lost and Found", Written from the perspective of an undertaker, she gives her readers a ringside seat at the Weibigand Mortuary where Enid, a middle aged woman with a taste for scotch, arrives on a Monday morning still in a stupor from the night before.
Initially, the reader learns a bit about Enid and the history of the mortuary, its original owners and their heirs who continue to operate the family owned business, along with all of its eccentric employees.
Early in the day, a call is received and there after a not so typical day in the life of a mortuary begins, Heuer, a well known middle aged attorney has been found dead in his apartment, where he laid for several days, The story now moves between present day and flash backs to a time when Heuer, Enid and others in the story are intertwined in one way or another, Heuer appears as a ghostly spectre to enchant us with his own take on his past, and his current impressions of what is being said and done as his body is prepared for burial.
I for one like this book, I found it to have a similar feel to the HBO series "Six Feet Under",
Ms. Funkhauser is a wizard with words and did a fine job of weaving this story of Greek, German and English speaking families that bounced back and forth throughout the entire book.
"
Chocked full of dark humour, Funkhauser takes us behind the scenes of a frenetic funeral parlour, It's a unique setting certainly one I've never come across before and the detailed descriptions of the procedures therein highlight an in depth knowledge of this area, Add to this a troupe of complicated, colourful characters and you're set for a bumpy ride,

It's an ensemble piece, but Heuer takes centre stage as the corpse, His spirit lingers around the parlour, drawn to one of the employees who forms a portion of his past, He gets mixed up in the inhouse fighting that grows ever bleaker until we race toward a startling finale, There's a talking rat, embalming and murky goingson,

I used this word earlier, but its one that kept repeating in my head as I read, Unique! But also compelling, funny, enlightening and touching, You won't read anything like this anywhere else, Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I will be following this author, I chose this book because the categories promised humour, horror, and occult treats, All true, but I found the humour dark, the horror only too real, and the occult quite plausible, Once I got over the initial shock of the goingson at the familyrun funeral home, I quite enjoyed the multiple POV characters, I cant say I liked or sympathized with any of them, but I couldnt stop reading on to see what happened to the train wrecks that are their lives.
Somehow, most of them survived to embalm another corpse on another day, Even the ghost was by turn damaged, immature, sad, noble and human, The five are for the stellar writing that made me care about these messed up characters, and for the genrebusting plot, Not to mention the whackedout spirit guide that had me saying, “What! What!” in every scene where it/he/she appeared, I only hope the Weibigand Funeral Home is a figment of the authors imagination, If you want something different to read, give this one a try, Heuer Lost and Found is a quirky and irreverent story about a man who dies and finds his spirit trapped in a funeral home with an exlover who happens to be the mortician.
He has to come to terms with his hoarding, degenerate past before he can escape, I love the character of Heuer, the Lawyer, Hes not a loveable character, but hes as fascinating as watching a bug under a microscope, I found myself rooting for the guy, which is always the mark of a strong character, The characterization is rich the story welltold, This is not your typical ghost story, especially for dear Heuer, recently deceased, Such a puzzle of a man, His past affair with the funeral director, Enid, is also a puzzle, delivered in bits and pieces that kept me turning pages, Details about the funeral home business and what goes into preparing a body for viewing are fascinating, particularly a man who is unfound for days after his death, I never imagined the craziness that goes on behind closed doors, or what might be in the basement, either, Imagine a brokenhearted funeral director Enid having to staple through the skull to wire the jaw shut of the man Heuer she still loves, At the same time, Heuer wishes he could just touch her one more time before his spirit has to leave earth, Life is filled with many such indignities, and it's how we come to grips with them that carries us through, Theres a sense of detachment to be found in people who deal with the deceased, Life, though, is not without its upheavals as long as one remains within its bounds, So how do you deal with the application of a spicy story to such resigned protagonists Enter, Ms, Funkhauser with her masterpiece.
To put things in perspective, let us consider a phone call to a funeral house early in the story, It begins with the line: “This is Werner Heuer, Herr Forsythe, My wife and I have need of your services today, My son is dead. ” Now consider the sentiment of Mr, Forsythe on the other end, depicted a few lines later: Charlie, calculating profit after disbursements, felt better already,
The authors mastery begins with the very element she chooses to play with to pacify the contrast in her story time, She opens the door at the universally agonizing hour ofAM on a Monday, then begins to step back, before were suddenly flung back to Day One: Postmortemminutes on.
The only constant from then on is subtle versions of timeswing that soaks us in,
It is fascinating to watch people on two sides of a wall oblivious to each other and looking at the same thing in an entirely different way talk to each other but not listen.
This is especially so when that wall is the border between life and afterlife, In the story, we have Enid on one side, who loses someone once important to her Heuer without a chance to say a final goodbye, On the other side, we have Heuer whose story, and in some way, life itself unfolds after his death, As I recently expressed to the author in an interview, in a single stroke she introduces us to both our greatest fear and our greatest wish, And as she had then clarified, the very idea leads to the conclusion that there is no first or second chance, nor is there a wall, Everything we experience in the pages of time is in continuum,
A. B. Funkhausers likes to play with her narration, She liberally uses nonEnglish phrases, alternates between classy and backstreet lingo, and most pleasingly, embeds past conversations in between the current ones, This fusion aids the above idea, But perhaps the most moving of moments comes when the dead asks God to prove His existence and has his prayers answered almost immediately, at which he frolics, “Yes ! Yes! There is a god!” That joy establishes the fickle unending of our quest for purpose.

The author compels us to make peace with a whole lot of commotion, For, in narrating the psyche of the deceased, she makes us face a choice to use the time we have in peaceful altruism, or to burn ourselves out in constant churn of titfortat scheming, which will not end even after we die.
So from a Bastards indifferent generosity, to a Rats unconditional love, to an inanimate afterlife existence in a Lamp, Ms, Funkausers message to us is beautifully laid out, As she states, beauty and elegance is not always spotted or even appreciated even when its right in front of your face,
Her ultimate directive can be summed up in one word: Live, But it takes her book

to understand how,
.