The Businessman

A Tale of Terror

2010
Author:

Thomas M. Disch
Foreword by John Crowley

The wicked first book in Thomas M. Disch’s Supernatural Minnesota series

The Businessman presents the sinister tale of Bob Glandier, a morally repulsive Twin Cities executive who murders his estranged wife and attempts to go back to business as usual, until she returns to set about arranging his divine retribution, undertaking an elaborate and wickedly amusing haunting of her husband. There is justice in the afterlife after all—at least in Minnesota.

Each of the sixty short chapters of The Businessman is a tour de force.

Times Literary Supplement

The Businessman presents the sinister tale of Bob Glandier, a morally repulsive Twin Cities executive who murders his estranged wife and attempts to go back to business as usual, until she returns to set about arranging his divine retribution. With help from her dead mother and the ghost of poet John Berryman—thoroughly bored of suburban séances and all too eager to lend a hand—Giselle undertakes the elaborate, righteous, and wickedly amusing haunting of her husband. There is justice in the afterlife after all—at least in Minnesota.

Thomas M. Disch (1940–2008) was a best-selling and prolific American science fiction writer and poet. He won several awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book in 1999.

John Crowley is the author of numerous books, including Little, Big, which received the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

Each of the sixty short chapters of The Businessman is a tour de force.

Times Literary Supplement

The Businessman is an entertaining nightmare out of Thomas Berger and Stephen King.

Time

Equal measures of terror and whimsy, spookery and spoof . . . Disch puts his storytelling skills squarely at the service of a highly charged moral vision, without ever reneging on his promise to dazzle and entertain us.

Newsweek

A genuine blood-curdling thriller . . . a masterpiece.

Houston Post

Prepare yourself for blushing situations, side cramps, and the feeling of abandonment by your character friends, and The Businessman should be a smooth ride.

Big Muddy

The Businessman is vintage Disch . . . revealing a prickly imagination that delights in upending expectations.

MinnPost.com