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Fiction Janitor for the multiverse DEPARTMENT ZERO By Paul Crilley 301 pp. Pyr Books Reviewed by Eric Petersen Scottish author Paul Crilley, best known as a children’s book writer, is back with another novel geared toward adult readers. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if H.P. Lovecraft and Douglas Adams had collaborated on a novel? Well, now you can find out. When asked what he does for a living, Harry Priest, a sad-sack Englishman living in Los Angeles, (the author is a Scotsman who lives in South Africa) says that the polite term for his job is “biohazard remediation.” Another term for it is “crime and trauma scene decontamination.” In other words, Harry is a 40-year-old janitor who cleans up crime and accident scenes after the police have done their work. He works for a company called LA Cleaners. His dim-bulb partner, Jorge, is the owner’s son. Harry’s ex-wife Megan left him a while ago, disgusted by his lack of ambition. His only pleasure in life is calling his daught...