Property Values

The worlds of urban gentrification, overpriced real estate, and gang violence collide in this wry and sardonic crime novel by author and comedian Charles Demers (Vancouver Special, The Horrors).

As a shaky truce between suburban gangsters starts to unravel, schlubby civilian Scott Clark has other things on his mind: if he can’t afford to buy out his former father-in-law, Scott’s about to lose the only house he’s ever called home. In Vancouver’s red-hot real estate market, he doesn’t have a chance–until he and his best friends take the last-ditch measure of staging a drive-by shooting on the property to push down the asking price. But when Scott’s pretend gangland stunt attracts the attention of real criminals, his make-believe crew soon finds itself in the middle of a deadly rivalry.

With wicked humour and a brilliant cast of desperate characters, Property Values explodes the crime novel genre while exploring the absurd lengths to which a man will go to in order to hold onto his home in today’s market.

AUTHOR

Charles Demers

Charles Demers is a comedian, writer, and playwright, and the author of the novels Property Values (Arsenal Pulp Press) and The Prescription Errors (Insomniac Press), and the non-fiction books The Horrors (Douglas & McIntyre), Vancouver Special (Arsenal Pulp Press, now out of print), and (with George Bowering) The Dad Dialogues (Arsenal Pulp Press). He’s a regular on CBC’s The Debaters and is the voice of Walter the Slug on the Emmy-winning Netflix cartoon Beat Bugs. He is also the editor of Robin’s Egg Books, a humour imprint of Arsenal Pulp Press. A longtime political activist, he lives in East Vancouver with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

Nobody writes Vancouver like Charles Demers. In Property Values, Canada’s best and most socially engaged comedian takes aim at the housing crisis and the death of journalism with equal parts humour, outrage, and literary virtuosity. Hysterical and highly moving.
-Sam Wiebe, author of Invisible Dead and Cut You Down
This is a book that will make you laugh, and make you think. –Vancouver Sun
Demers’ book reflects the very real struggle and desperation of average folks just trying to get a fair shake in an unfair world. Thankfully, he’s hilarious and the story of a great bad idea that goes very bad is compelling, moving, and FUNNY! -Marc Maron, actor-comedian
Property Values is an absolute pleasure: incisive, LOL comedic, emotional, and full of insightful juxtapositions that define living in Vancouver. Charles Demers has brilliantly twisted a crime novel with a demented coming of age tale and in doing so, expands our definitions of home, family and self-worth. -Mina Shum, filmmaker, Meditation Park and Double Happiness
Written by an author acclaimed for the sharp, politically charged wit of such books as The Horrors and Vancouver Special, this descent into noir is also outright funny. –Georgia Straight
A searing commentary on the commodification of homes and the displacement of lower and middle classes should be neither funny nor entertaining, yet here we are with Charles Demers’ hilarious new novel. Like the best literary satire, the jokes are so densely and smartly packed into each page that you forget this is about serious stuff. And trust me: you will, as the non-cool kids say, guffaw out loud. -Paul Bae, executive producer of “The Big Loop” and “The Black Tapes”