A group of comedians are invited onto an island to collaborate with a legend in the industry. When they get there though, they realize the legend isn’t there, and the whole island is boobytrapped with deadly games. One by one the comics start dying, and they have to figure out who is behind this to survive. The idea behind this book is creative, and some of the standup sets featured are funny. Overall though, the “comedy” in the book involves sexual harassment, racism, and crude sexual jokes. All of the characters were unlikeable; there is no one for readers to root for. If the goal with this book was for readers to want all of the characters to die, then it succeeded.

Honestly, I didn't finish this book. I didn't find it funny right from the start, and there were just too many characters. However, it received great reviews from many other people, so you still might want to give it a chance.

The title caught my attention. Then I read the premise:

"A darkly clever take on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and other classics of the genre, Ten Dead Comedians is a marvel of literary ventriloquism, with hilarious comic monologues in the voice of every suspect. It’s also an ingeniously plotted puzzler with a twist you’ll never see coming!"

So I knew what I was in for - a comedic take on a classic elimination murder mystery. And I wasn't disappointed. The story was simple - a series of text messages are sent out to various comedians, inviting them to a small Jamaican island to take part in the next big thing. No-one is about to greet them, and in each of their rooms is a memento of the past or the future. A video by their host, the great Dustin Walker, accuses them all of crimes against comedy - all are to be judged and no-one is leaving - alive.

" ... a room full of comics turns into a shark tank with one sniff of blood in the water ..."

The story then builds up with each chapter. There are plot twists upon plot twists, the characters are suitable odorous, and you found that you didn't really know which character you should be rooting for to survive the obligatory gruesome end.

I knew what I was in for and found myself engaged, having some preconception of the proposed plot-line as I am a dedicated Agatha Christie fan. Fred van Lente's homage to this classic crime genre, style of story-telling, and sardonic humour will not be to everyone's taste ... but it is what is is.

A clever, funny, and witty books, I was really surprised when I read it. Will definitely appeal to my customers who enjoy a good Christie mystery with a dash of Janet Evanovich.

I love mystery, I love comedy and I love And Then There Were None... so I couldn't wait to read this new take. Although it did take me a while to get into at the very start (while you jump about getting to know the characters) it is well worth reading. The mystery was sound, the jokes were good and the characters were great (not based on real people - yeah right!) It's tense in places, funny in others and quite often both.

There are lots of twists and turns and some pretty gruesome deaths. Although I worked out a small part of the mystery, the full resolution was a surprise. The structure was interesting - different views of different characters, interspersed with transcripts of their comedy routines - and helped you get to know the characters.

A few of the passages need a re-write as it seemed that they were still in first draft 'get the ideas down' form but I know this was an advanced review copy so that may well be resolved. I am very grateful to NetGalley and Quirk Books for the ARC of Ten Dead Comedians.

And Then There Were None meets a comedy central roast. I have never read a book like this--a modern funny take off on a golden age locked room type mystery. And Van Lente pulls it off admirably. It's different--give it a try.

Once I got the hang of what was going on, and knowing that the sort of horror/comedian genre novel was kicking in, I just relaxed - with, and full of , double twists until the end, I found I really wanted to know why these 10 comedians were gathered together - with requisite bursts of sexist comment (a lesbian naturally has hairy legs, right? hahaha; and black people are all street-wise, etc etc), there is slightly old fashioned veneer but I suppose comedy is prone to timing issues after all, it's effective enough! But gripping nonetheless ...

What happens when a classic Agatha Christie story gets rewritten from the world of comedy? If you add in one very talented writer, you get Fred Van Lente's 10 Dead Comedians, a modern retelling of And Then There Were None, one of the world's most classic and intriguing closed door mysteries. 

Successful comedian Dustin Walker has invited nine other comedians to his private island estate, just off Saint Martin in the Caribbean. A text invitation to work together on a new project went out to a variety of comedians--an insult comic, a prop comic, a retired talk show host, an internet comic, and the hardest working comedian on the road, just to name a few. And each one jumped at the chance to work with Dusty, a comedic icon and inspiration to many. 

But once they all reach the island, things start to go south. The elevator that would take them quickly and easily to the house is out of order, so they all have to make an arduous trip up hundreds of stairs to get to the house. Dusty is nowhere to be seen. And as the various comedians find their rooms and try to make themselves comfortable, they realize that things aren't quite right. 

A meeting in Dusty's writer's room with all the comedians makes things even stranger. A recorded message from him puts all the guests on notice, when he tells them that he accuses them all of crimes against comedy and that no one will leave the island alive. He then puts a noose around his neck and jumps. 

From there, the comedians try to figure out what is going on around them. Is there someone working with Dusty, or was the island sabotaged before his suicide to kill them all? Who can they trust? And as the comedians meet an untimely demise one by one, those who are left have even more reason to get to the bottom of the mystery before it's their turn to die. 

Fred Van Lente's mystery is a classic closed door puzzle with the modern twist of the comedy world thrown in. It's a great ironic twist on the genre, but what's more, it's phenomenally written. You get the fun of the behind-the-scenes comedy industry secrets along with a roster of comedians who all seem a little familiar in a story that is so readable the pages will not stop turning. You just have to keep reading, and Van Lente makes it feel effortless. 10 Dead Comedians is a fantastic read to get lost in, and I recommend it to all mystery fans and comedy fans as well as anyone who loves a book that takes you away for awhile. 



Galleys for 10 Dead Comedians provided by Quirk Books through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.

Ten Dead Comedians is a novel written by Fred Van Lente, a guy who is better known for his work in comic books. So, with that background you should expect an unusual plot, and that’s what you get. This sounds a bit like Agatha Christie’s best selling novel And Then There were None because 10 people are lured to a remote island with promise of future employment, and then they are killed one by one – causing havoc among the progressively dwindling survivors. The twist here is that the person who invited the others was none other than Dustin Walker. Walker was a legend for his comic work who sounds like a cross between Milton Berle, Johnny Carson, and Steve Martin. Walker’s victims were all comedians. Walker was well past his prime and essentially retired, but he had become incredibly wealthy. He built a mansion on his own Caribbean island and he issued invitations to each of the comedians to come join him for an undefined project. Given that their own careers were fading, they jumped at the chance to work with Walker, a legend.

The comedians: Steve Gordon, Zoe Schwartz, Dante Dupree, Oliver Rees (Orange Baby Man), Janet Kahn, TJ Martinez, Ruby Ng, William Griffith (Billy the Contractor), and Meredith Ladipo. Upon being dropped off at the island by a boat which promptly left, Walker’s invitees found that the island was deserted, and all food and eating utensils had been removed. All Internet service, telephone lines, and any other means of communicating with the outside world was cut off. Then, as they gathered inside the mansion, the comedians were presented with a video of Walker who accused all of them of committing “crimes against comedy,” and then committing suicide. In the video, Walker ran out of the very room where the group was standing. He jumped from the window which bordered a high cliff. Walker had a rope around his neck, and when the startled group looked out of the window, they saw a body hanging below them. When they tried to pull the body up, the head literally came off. The head and body crashed into the surf below and were promptly swept out to sea. But what this real, or was it just another Walker gag?

The group argued about their circumstances even after the first to die was Billy the Contractor who was poisoned when he drank a can of beer. Then Janet Kahn was killed by a shotgun blast when she sat down in a booby-trapped chair. And so it continued. The dialogue among the comedians, all experts at dealing with hecklers, was classic. I’ll leave the end of the story to you to read – but this is a unique and clever story. It gets my recommendation.

And Then There Were None is a classic, and I'm always thrilled to read novels that take a new approach to the plot. Ten Dead Comedians is one of the most unusual reworkings of the classic tale. Much of the novel focuses on the cutthroat nature of comedy and the extreme difficulty involved in remaining in the limelight. Fame and fortune is something many would kill for, but would they also die for it? Nine comedians are invited by famous or rather infamous funny man Dustin Walker. The weekend is viewed as an opportunity, but it quickly becomes clear it is a trap. Each and every one of the comedians has angered Dustin Walker in some way - angered him enough to consider each of their weaknesses and create individualized death traps. The murders are brutal and disturbing. Ten Dead Comedians departs from the formula in two ways - 1) the nature of the “guilt” of the participants & 2) there are survivors.

The comedic monologues are funny, but what you feel most is an overwhelming combination of disgust and pity. You don’t like the characters, but you also don't feel they deserve to be murdered. And you really end up hating Dustin Walker - the lord high executioner of the piece. I'm glad that there were survivors. Somehow if there had been none it would have killed the piece. Ten Dead Comedians is admittedly clever, but it didn't sit well with me.

3 / 5

I received a copy of Ten Dead Comedians from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

I started reading this book when I first received it. The formatting was a bit wonky on my Kindle. That made it difficult to read at times and I found that annoying. I recently was told "You have to give it another go" by a friend so I did. How right they were. The character development at the beginning was great. A little hard for me to remember which comedian was which, but I had a good bit of details on each. Appreciated knowing their background and their personalities. Once we arrived on the island they interact as I can imagine comedians would act. Wisecracks, sarcastic comments, and jokes. The premise, of course, is reminiscent of Agatha Christie and that I appreciated. She was amazing and deserves to be flattered by imitation. I am so glad I decided to listen to my friend and over look the wonky Kindle formatting. I really enjoyed this book!

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy for free from Netgalley and the publisher.

Van Lente has crafted the perfect locked-room mystery.  His stunning debut novel begins with nine comedians receiving invitations to come to an island retreat in the Caribbean. It is the home of renowned comedian Dustin Walker, who is beyond famous. Each guest hopes that Walker can do something to jump start their floundering careers. They were the next best thing at one time, but for most of them it was a flash in the pan. They plummeted from the spotlight as fast as they ascended, but with Walker’s help they all figure they will be back in demand again.

The only problem is, once they arrive on the island via boat with Walker’s assistant Meredith Ladipo, they find themselves stranded. Walker is nowhere to be found, the boat is gone, there is no WIFI and the caretaker is mysteriously absent. Ladipo assures them everything will be fine. They were uneasy, but were willing to wait it out due to the rewards Walker promised them. That was all good and well until the first murder occurred.

This brilliant mystery has the perfect setting for the crazy characters Van Lente created. Where else but a comedian’s island paradise house could hold such a cast? Each character has issues. One of them is an alcoholic; one is trying to be way younger than she really is with the use of cosmetic surgery and yet another did something in his career that will come back to haunt him.

Then there is the killer. Who is it? Since the island appears deserted, it must be one of the guests that came expecting to meet with Walker. Perhaps there is someone hiding on the property. Maybe it is an elaborate joke. How many will have to die before they are either rescued or find out who is behind all of this?

This book is the mystery lover’s dream come true. If you are a fan of stand-up comedians it is nirvana. I loved the plot, the surprises at the end as well as the characters in this book.

Between chapters, Van Lente has inserted stand-up bits from the characters. You can tell immediately which comic is performing before you see their name at the end of the bit because you will come to know each character intimately. Some of the bits are cutting, others bawdy and one is very sad. The author does a perfect job of pulling emotions out of the reader via his true-to-life characters and the perfect plot.

Ten Dead Comedians is a must read for mystery fans. I highly recommend it.

Copyright © 2017 Laura Hartman

TEN STAND UPS, NINE MURDERS, ONE SOLUTION (2017)
By Fred Van Lente
Quirk Books/Penguin Random House, 289 pages
★★★

Is there a worse kept secret in the entire entertainment world than the fact that a lot of comedians are seriously screwed up individuals? The world of comedy is littered with self-inflicted corpses, but what if someone decided to pick out nine stand up comics and do the job for them? That's the premise of Fred Van Lente's debut mystery novel Ten Stand Ups, Nine Murders, One Solution. Van Lente has hitherto been known for writing zombie comics and the occasional graphic novel, including Cowboys & Aliens, which was made into a film that bombed critically and at the box office.

One suspects that some of Van Lente's experience got exorcised in his novel, as its pivotal character, Dustin Walker, was once a big late night TV star, but fell from grace after making a trashy but surprise hit film, I Married a Cat. It spawned a series of ludicrous sequels that ultimately exiled its creator to a fate worse than death: celebrity irrelevance. That is, unless you're an insider and still think guys like Walker have pull. When his personal assistant, Meredith, invites nine individuals to come to Walker's private island to discuss a future "project," the allure proves too great to resist. To be sure, the motives are less than lofty—vanity, flagging careers, seeking to bask in reflected glory, perchance to brag…. One by one they come, but Walker is nowhere in evidence, the Wi-Fi code doesn't work, groundskeeper Dave is missing, Meredith seems clueless about everything, and there's no way off the island until the boat that brought them returns. In short, they are left their own devices, a tool chest that mostly contains professional jealousy, one-upmanship, and mutual loathing. And then things really go wrong: a video showing Walker's apparent suicide is prelude to stand ups meeting grisly ends.

Comedy fans will entertain themselves by matching egos and biographies to the imperiled islanders. The washed-up TV host Walker has many parallels—among them, Joey Bishop, Chevy Chase, Jerry Lewis, and David Brenner—and his character is probably a composite, but how about Janet Kahn, the real Queen of Mean? Joan Rivers, anyone? Or Margaret Cho as the inspiration for lesbian comic Ruby Ng, who blew her career by uttering something unutterable. It's pretty hard not to think of Sarah Silverman as a template for Zoe Schwartz, the gagster who delights in talking about her vagina to the point where she becomes—if I might mix body parts—the butt of her own routine. How can we not imagine Sam Kinison as a stand-in for William Griffith, aka/ "Billy the Contractor," a rich jerk who pretends to represent "Real America?" Is Dante Dupree part Richard Pryor? Who is Oliver Rees, aka "Orange Baby Man," a decidedly unfunny person who portrays a grown infant and has a knack for trade marking associated kitsch? (Andy Kaufman?) Or T J Martinez, who fancies himself a revolutionary Latino—as long as it doesn't crimp his comfortable lifestyle? And then there's improv teacher Steve Gordon, whom TJ pretends not to know, though they once worked together.

The structure and content of the book is pretty much that of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. This is, depending on your point of view, either homage or intellectual pilfering. I'm willing to give Van Lente the benefit of the doubt and call it a Christie update. Let's face it, we don't read many mysteries because they are literary masterpieces; we consume them for cheap thrills and as respites from that denser genre we label "literature." Van Lente is not a great stylist, but he enlivens his text with excerpted monologues from his comedians and demonstrates, if nothing else, that he knows his way around comedy clubs. His debut novel is entertaining. It's summertime. That's enough.

Rob Weir

"Ten Dead Comedians" is a comedic update of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." Ten comedians of varying levels of fame and fortune end up on a remote tropical island, lured by an opportunity too good to pass up. When they find the island deserted, no sign of their famous host, they aren't too alarmed until they start dying one by one. As the hours wear on, who will be the last comic standing?

The writing is light and the characters are fairly well developed given the relatively short length of the book. The stand-up routines interspersed throughout the story are entertaining and provide additional insight into the characters. A fun read for fans of classic mystery novels.

A group of stand up comedians is brought to a mysterious isolated island, seemingly to be part of a new project by the most famous comedian in existance. But they quickly discover not all is what it seems, as they begin to be killed off one by one.

I'm immediately in for any book that is an homage to And Then There Were None, one of my top three favorite books of all time. I loved all the little touches that referenced the mystery great, whether it was the island setting, or the headshots on the wall (instead of little statues), or the video accusation (instead of a record). What also drew me to this book is that it promised to be a decidedly unique take on a classic with the cast of characters Van Lente presented.


This was a mystery that definitely kept me guessing! There were a lot of great twists and turns, especially a well-done big twist at the end.


I felt the motivation behind the killings rang a little thin. It didn't seem enough necessarily within the context of the book for the murderer to have gone to such great lengths to kill this specific group of people.

It was also sometimes hard, I felt, to translate stand up comedy to the written page. There were a lot of transcripts of monologue performances that didn't always work for me.


If you are looking for a quick mystery read that is a fun, unique take on one of the best mysteries of all time, I would recommend this book. I had fun reading it, and it flew by.

This was a funny murder mystery. It was an entertaining and a quick read. 10 strangers are on a deserted island, the home of legendary comedian Dustin Walker. He has invited them there to work on his latest project. When they arrive, they find the island deserted and their host dead. With no internet or phone service, they have no way of getting off the island. And one by one, they are being murdered.

The ways they are killed become increasingly complex, as we try to figure out who is responsible for the deaths, and who, if anyone, will survive. The main story is interspersed with comedy monologues from each of the comedians. I felt the monologues were the weakest part of the story. Towards the end, I just skipped over them. I don't feel like I missed anything.

It also seemed that the people weren't taking the threat seriously enough. They didn't seem as panicked as I think I would be. As in all horror movies, people were still going off by themselves instead of sticking together. And being lured to isolated locations. Why are people so stupid?

For all these flaws, this was still a fun read. I enjoyed the basic story. The murders were inventive and the ending was satisfying. Just be prepared for characters that you like to die. This is a murder mystery after all.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

When I first read Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None many years ago, I was amazed at how audacious a book published in 1939 could be. (That’s not even taking into consideration the whodunit’s original title, which is not so much audacious as just plain offensive.) On Christie’s island, there were no good guys, no Marple or Poirot… and no survivors.

Writing a contemporary riff on one of Christie’s most famous novels is also a pretty bold move. Fred Van Lente populates his island with stand-up comics, ranging from wannabes and has-beens to huge stars. They have all been summoned by Dustin Walker, an enormously successful comedian who starred in a blockbuster movie called “Help! I Married A Cat” and its many sequels. Ever since the failure of “Help! I Married A Cat: The New Litter” in 2009, Walker has been laying low, but now he’s plotting a comeback, and everyone wants in.

Anyone who follows the comedy scene will have no trouble matching Van Lente’s fictional stand-ups to their real-life counterparts: Billy the Contractor, a Larry the Cable Guy type whose catchphrase is “Fix ‘er up!”; Janet Kahn, an aging insult comic with a yen for plastic surgery a la Joan Rivers; Zoe Schwartz, a foul-mouthed comedian in the Sarah Silverman/Amy Schumer vein; and Oliver Rees, whose act seems to be a sort of hybrid of Gallagher, Carrot Top and the Blue Man Group. It’s plausible that a down-on-his-luck comic like Steve Gordon, reduced to teaching improv at corporate team-building events, would be willing to hightail it to Walker’s island, but would a high-maintenance celeb like Janet really show up sans entourage, even if she does see it as an opportunity to recover from her latest face lift?

If you can suspend your disbelief, this is a fun, quick read, though the solution (while clever) shows just how difficult it is to go toe-to-toe with Dame Agatha, even after almost 80 years.

Savvy mystery lovers will recognize immediately from the title what Fred van Lente’s debut is: a modern reworking of And Then There Were None, the Agatha Christie novel originally published with the offensive title of Ten Little Niggers. Which is especially appropriate for this novel for reasons I’ll get to later.

Dustin Walker was a comedy legend in his day; however, a series of extremely lucrative but terrible movies has reduced the one time king of comedy to a punchline. Even so, Walker has accrued so much wealth that he now has a Caribbean island to himself with a mansion to match. So when an assortment of comedians — some well-known, some not-so-much — get an invitation from Walker to come to the island, they all respond, hoping that they can profit from what they assume is a comeback gambit. The group includes funhouse versions of Larry the Cable Guy, Joan Rivers, Pewee Herman, a Puerto Rican David Letterman, among others. As in And Then There Were None, the guests find their host has killed himself and then arranged that the rest should die, one by one.

As the novel’s title suggests, van Lente has crossed the Agatha Christie classic with a no-holds-barred, profane and often tasteless show-business satire to create a gripping thriller, both funny and suspenseful, a book that kept me reading into the wee hours so I could see how it ended. And worth every lost minute of sleep. Highly, highly recommended.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Quirk Books in exchange for an honest review.