One of my favorite genres is mystery. It's just lately that I started to like horror mysteries. I'd prefer reading them than watching horror movies. My imagination is too active for my liking and I'd end up imagining seeing those scary creatures in the room. But if I am familiar with the actors who are in the horror movie, it would seem like the movie would not be that scary anymore. I don't know if that's weird but that's how I see it.
I got this from the author. He reached out to me April of last year through this blog and asked if I would want to review his book. Yes. It seemed like that was a lifetime ago. Time flies too past and as always, I'm playing catch up with my reviews. Reading has never been a problem for me. I can read two or three books in one day, if I have nothing else to do. It's always been writing the reviews that's a challenge. It seems like I have to be in the mood. Sometimes, I find myself in a certain mood to write a review for another book instead of the other one that I was supposed to or planned earlier on to write a review. There's no exact formula on how I write my reviews. These past few days I tried another method. To try to write one for each day. We'll see if I can sustain it. I really hope so.
This mystery story at first seemed like not really ghost related. Like Mac McClellan, I too was skeptical at first. I too thought the mysterious deaths were done by someone alive and breathing and not by a ghost. How the events had turned out in the story was very interesting and curious. It's enough to make the hair on my arms stand on end.
The mix of a ghost story and a series of murders is very fantastic. The addition of the paranormal element into the story tends to draw me in ever more. Who can resist a ghost purported to be on a killing spree? Really curious, right? Good thing, we have Mac, as skeptical as any PI could be. Of course, in his line of work, he can't just accept or take anyone's word for it. Evidence is important and it had to be as tangible as possible. More so, it should stand scrutiny and probe.
Like the rest of the small towns where everybody tends to know everybody, that's what's going on in this story also. Everyone seems to be connected to one another. And that connection, that somehow contributed to how the case of the murders were solved. Of course, we can't discount Mac's PI prowess and skills.
I just really like how the murders were resolved. It wasn't predictable but yet you can't help but suspect that there's a connection between some of the characters in this story. Now, I am curious what the other previous books were about. What were the previous adventures of Mac? Did they all had a sprinkling of the supernatural?
I give the book 4/5 old school tape recorders. Like these old relics of the past, a good old detective work goes a long way. And that there are no secrets that will stay hidden. Eventually they all come out into the open. Just like the very old murder in this story, even if it was after three long decades, finally it was resolved. Even if closure was delayed, at least that body and mystery could now be put to rest. I really enjoyed this book. The suspense of how dead bodies just fall one after the other with no obvious reason or suspect. I was glued and I didn't let go of the book until the story was over. It's been a while since I last read mystery stories like this. I have missed this. Thank you again, E. Michael Helms for the book copy. What's next for Mac?
By the way, I love that Henry is part of this story. Having loyal and cute pets in a story always adds a certain element to the story. Plus, I love dogs. The love and hate relationship between Sheriff Pickron and Mac is also very amusing. It seems like Mac tests the sheriff's very limited patience and knows how to push the wrong buttons of the sheriff. I feel sorry for the sheriff, yet in a way felt he deserves it also.
And I just love this quote. I am hoping I could use this sentence in real life. But it would go like this. "What right has my asthmatic lungs have to tell your liver what to do?" I don't smoke and I don't drink, so my only right to claim for authenticity to the statement is my having hereditary asthma.
What right does my liver have to tell your lungs what to do?
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive.
- E. Michael Helms, Deadly Spirits -
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