Longlisted for the ReLit Award

Best Fiction 2006, Ottawa Xpress

Dead Man in the Orchestra Pit is a singularly Canadian novel featuring crime, culture, and sports. Written in the vein of John Kennedy Toole (Confederacy of Dunces) and JP Donleavy, Dead Man in the Orchestra Pit is set in Vancouver during an early 80s Grey Cup weekend. Tourists and sports aficionados have descended on the city in record droves. There are, however, a few folks who have other interests and plans. Three small-time career crooks are planning a heist on one of the city’s exclusive hotels. Enter Harry Pazik Jr., a good ole boy from Calgary, who is inadvertently swept up in the mayhem of the crooks’ boondoggle. Meanwhile, across town at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, rehearsals of La Traviata are in full swing. The 300-pound stage manager has toppled to the orchestra pit, crushing the tuba player, while Jorgen Thrapp, assistant to the Lighting Director, is busy behind the scenes with his dealings in drugs and numbers running for a crooked printer intent on making a killing on the big game. Everyone gets more than they bargained for in this slapstick Grey Cup-meets-Goodfellas romp.

Praise for Dead Man in the Orchestra Pit:

"... If you've spent any time torturing yourself reading the recent spate of horrid Canadian 'historical' fictions or suffering through Giller-nominated books that make you want to stick sewing needles in your eyes, read this book and bust a gut and revel in delicious, punchy writing, dark and memorable characterizations, intricate plotting and absurdity by the bucketfuls. I couldn't help but gobble this novel in one sitting and I put it down with a shit-eating grin on my face, feeling as though I'd been let in on a secret: Tom Osborne is a Canadian comic genius. ..." (Front & Centre)

"‘Only connect’ was E.M. Forster’s advice to writers, and Osborne connects like a mad electrician in a power plant.” (The Vancouver Sun)

"Tom Osborne’s Dead Man in the Orchestra Pit begins with a film-noir style, moves to a rocking rhythm midway, then gallops madly ...” (Canadian Literature)

Tom Osborne was one of the founding editors of the notorious Pulp Press Publishing Co. (now Arsenal Pulp Press) in the 1970s. Osborne is the author of two novels published by Anvil Press: Foozlers and Dead Man in the Orchestra Pit. He is also the author of several poetry collections: Under the Shadow of Thy Wings, 9 Love Poems, The Reamer's Car Club Blues Band Story, and Please Wait for Attendant to Open Gate (the latter two of which are now “rarerdquo; finds). His work has appeared in Geist, subTerrain, and 3-Cent Pulp. He was born on Baffin Island, spent his youth in Kamloops, BC and later years in Vancouver. He currently resides in Maple Ridge, BC.

Tom Osborne's profile page

“‘Only connect’ was E.M. Forster’s advice to writers, and Osborne connects like a mad electrician in a power plant.”

“Smart dialogue, fast action, and a mix of liquor and drugs fuel this clever tale.” —North Shore News