A darkly comic foray into the world of men and women who fake their own deaths, the consultants who help them disappear, and the private investigators who'll stop at nothing to bring them back to life.

A delightful read for anyone tantalized by the prospect of disappearing without a trace. --Erik Larson, New York Times bestselling author of Dead Wake
Delivers all the lo-fi spy shenanigans and caught-red-handed schadenfreude you're hoping for. --NPR
A lively romp. --The Boston Globe
Grim fun. --The New York Times
Brilliant topic, absorbing book. --The Seattle Times
The most literally escapist summer read you could hope for. --The Paris Review

Is it still possible to fake your own death in the twenty-first century? With six figures of student loan debt, Elizabeth Greenwood was tempted to find out. So off she sets on a darkly comic foray into the world of death fraud, where for $30,000 a consultant can make you disappear--but your suspicious insurance company might hire a private detective to dig up your coffin...only to find it filled with rocks.

Greenwood tracks down a British man who staged a kayaking accident and then returned to live in his own house while all his neighbors thought he was dead. She takes a call from Michael Jackson (no, he's not dead--or so her new acquaintances would have her believe), stalks message boards for people contemplating pseudocide, and gathers intel on black market morgues in the Philippines, where she may or may not obtain some fraudulent goodies of her own. Along the way, she learns that love is a much less common motive than money, and that making your death look like a drowning virtually guarantees that you'll be caught. (Disappearing while hiking, however, is a way great to go.)

Playing Dead is a charmingly bizarre investigation in the vein of Jon Ronson and Mary Roach into our all-too-human desire to escape from the lives we lead, and the men and women desperate enough to give up their lives--and their families--to start again.

A London mini-cab driver thinks the image of James Bond as a typical British Secret Agent is outmoded and needs to be replaced by a more democratic one in keeping with the contemporary era. Based on gossip he hears as a minicab driver from two of his regular fares who work for MI5 he discovers that there are more Russian spies currently in London than during the Cold War. Picking up leads, he starts investigating the activities of Ukrainian migr s in London and, proceeding by trial and error, he manages to trace the whereabouts of a Russian master spy who goes by the code name of SQUID and proceeds to his arrest and demise.

What is it like to fall in love with someone in prison?

A London mini-cab driver thinks the image of James Bond as a typical British Secret Agent is outmoded and needs to be replaced by a more democratic one in keeping with the contemporary era. Based on gossip he hears as a minicab driver from two of his regular fares who work for MI5 he discovers that there are more Russian spies currently in London than during the Cold War. Picking up leads, he starts investigating the activities of Ukrainian migr s in London and, proceeding by trial and error, he manages to trace the whereabouts of a Russian master spy who goes by the code name of SQUID and proceeds to his arrest and demise.

The book is about the cases that the detective takes on and has to solve. There are several different cases in the book. All more exciting one than the other.

Elizabeth Greenwood studied sculpture at St. Martin's School of Art, and in Florence and Rome. She had a classical education, preferring Greek to Latin for the richness of its vocabulary and her sculpture with its reference to Greek mythology reflects this predilection; she is also a dedicated writer. Apart from poetry, she enjoys producing emblematic fiction based on Mary Poppins' philosophical song 'a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down', thus fulfilling the writer's task as entertainer cum moralist, Both creative activities date from early childhood. Although they were largely ignored, she was fortunate in having been born into a family where close relatives had universal minds, uniting a passion for Literature with a keen interest in Politics, the Cinema and Science, especially Space Science. Officially, she began her writing career by producing educational scripts for the BBC World Wide Services which taught her the invaluable benefit of dedicated researching. In later years, to counteract a tendency to create works of the imagination, she has applied herself to the discipline of academic work in the field of biblical studies with particular regard to the Dead Sea discoveries, now well-documented, which give insights into the rise of Christianity. Her particular interest in Sherlock Holmes as an innovative detective relates to his having been born in America in a play on Broadway where it was an immediate success, with a famous actor in the lead while Conan Doyle, the British creator of Sherlock Holmes, was serving with the Friends' Ambulance Service as a volunteer front-line surgeon during the Boer war in South Africa.

In Steward Sinclair, Part II, Sinclair takes on more cases and becomes more and more blunt and outspoken about the dysfunctional society in which he lives to the dismay of his inexperienced assistant who is meek and mild, an archaeological student in a gap year who earns pocket money on the side being a drag artist in a seedy Sailors' Club in London Docklands. One of the cases Sinclair takes on verges on the Gothic horror story, hopefully acting as a brain teaser.

In Steward Sinclair, Part II, Sinclair takes on more cases and becomes more and more blunt and outspoken about the dysfunctional society in which he lives to the dismay of his inexperienced assistant who is meek and mild, an archaeological student in a gap year who earns pocket money on the side being a drag artist in a seedy Sailors' Club in London Docklands. One of the cases Sinclair takes on verges on the Gothic horror story, hopefully acting as a brain teaser.

In Steward Sinclair, Part II, Sinclair takes on more cases and becomes more and more blunt and outspoken about the dysfunctional society in which he lives to the dismay of his inexperienced assistant who is meek and mild, an archaeological student in a gap year who earns pocket money on the side being a drag artist in a seedy Sailors' Club in London Docklands. One of the cases Sinclair takes on verges on the Gothic horror story, hopefully acting as a brain teaser.

Elizabeth Greenwood studied Sculpture at St. Martin's School of Art, and in Florence and Rome. She had a classical education, preferring Greek to Latin for the richness of its vocabulary and her sculpture with its references to Greek mythology reflects this predilection. She also writes Poetry. Apart from poetry, she enjoys producing emblematic fiction based on Mary Poppins' philosophical song a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, thus fulfilling the writer's task as an entertainer cum moralist. Both the poetical and the modelling activities date from early childhood. Although these were largely ignored, she was fortunate in having been born into a family where close relatives had universal minds, uniting a passion for literature with a keen interest in Science (of Space especially), Politics and the Cinema. In latter years, to counteract the tendency to create works of the imagination, she has applied herself to the discipline of academic works in the field of Religion, i.e. the Bible, with particular regard to the Dead Sea discoveries, no well-documented. A successful breeder and trainer of horses, she has campaigned ceaselessly for higher education in Equine Studies, on the lines devised in America where Hippology has been elevated to university status, thus producing educated riders and saving the horse a lot of unnecessary suffering, She considers horses to be regulators and keepers of conscience, teaching stoical wisdom in the exercise of man's power over life and death.

All the short stories in SOPHIE'S FRIENDS are based on Mary Poppins' philosophical song 'A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down', Elizabeth Greenwood's main purpose being to entertain the writer while describing the various situations which her characters encounter at home and abroad either realistically or figuratively, thus Sophie portrays classical philosophy which needs to be redefined in the Space age.

Elizabeth Greenwood studied sculpture at St. Martin's School of Art, and in Florence and Rome. She had a classical education, preferring Greek to Latin for the richness of its vocabulary and her sculpture with its reference to Greek mythology reflects this predilection; she is also a dedicated writer. Apart from poetry, she enjoys producing emblematic fiction based on Mary Poppins' philosophical song 'a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down', thus fulfilling the writer's task as entertainer cum moralist, Both creative activities date from early childhood. Although they were largely ignored, she was fortunate in having been born into a family where close relatives had universal minds, uniting a passion for Literature with a keen interest in Politics, the Cinema and Science, especially Space Science. Officially, she began her writing career by producing educational scripts for the BBC World Wide Services which taught her the invaluable benefit of dedicated researching. In later years, to counteract a tendency to create works of the imagination, she has applied herself to the discipline of academic work in the field of biblical studies with particular regard to the Dead Sea discoveries, now well-documented, which give insights into the rise of Christianity. Her particular interest in Sherlock Holmes as an innovative detective relates to his having been born in America in a play on Broadway where it was an immediate success, with a famous actor in the lead while Conan Doyle, the British creator of Sherlock Holmes, was serving with the Friends' Ambulance Service as a volunteer front-line surgeon during the Boer war in South Africa.

Elizabeth Greenwood studied sculpture at St. Martin's School of Art, and in Florence and Rome. She had a classical education, preferring Greek to Latin for the richness of its vocabulary and her sculpture with its reference to Greek mythology reflects this predilection; she is also a dedicated writer. Apart from poetry, she enjoys producing emblematic fiction based on Mary Poppins' philosophical song 'a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down', thus fulfilling the writer's task as entertainer cum moralist, Both creative activities date from early childhood. Although they were largely ignored, she was fortunate in having been born into a family where close relatives had universal minds, uniting a passion for Literature with a keen interest in Politics, the Cinema and Science, especially Space Science. Officially, she began her writing career by producing educational scripts for the BBC World Wide Services which taught her the invaluable benefit of dedicated researching. In later years, to counteract a tendency to create works of the imagination, she has applied herself to the discipline of academic work in the field of biblical studies with particular regard to the Dead Sea discoveries, now well-documented, which give insights into the rise of Christianity. Her particular interest in Sherlock Holmes as an innovative detective relates to his having been born in America in a play on Broadway where it was an immediate success, with a famous actor in the lead while Conan Doyle, the British creator of Sherlock Holmes, was serving with the Friends' Ambulance Service as a volunteer front-line surgeon during the Boer war in South Africa.

Dante Alighieri, the medieval Italian lyric poet, has long been the province of right-wing scholars with conservative standards. However, recently, an English conservative prime minister changed all that (probably unbeknown to him) when he declared publicly that he believed in gay marriages because he believed in marriage, thus lifting the interdict on Dante's sexual identity, clearing it of the idealistic mist in which it had been clouded for centuries with the support of relevant texts susceptible of a loaded interpretation as if a sexual issue could demean such a genius or take anything away from the pathos of The Divine Comedy.

Dante Alighieri, the medieval Italian lyric poet, has long been the province of right-wing scholars with conservative standards. However, recently, an English conservative prime minister changed all that (probably unbeknown to him) when he declared publicly that he believed in gay marriages because he believed in marriage, thus lifting the interdict on Dante's sexual identity, clearing it of the idealistic mist in which it had been clouded for centuries with the support of relevant texts susceptible of a loaded interpretation as if a sexual issue could demean such a genius or take anything away from the pathos of The Divine Comedy.