Review by Julie Morales

TO BURY THE DEAD By Craig Spector Harper Torch 2000 335 pp. Paperback $6.99 ISBN: 0380793059

Horror is its most frightening when it hits close to home . . . and fiction cannot compare to the life changing horrors that can happen at any time, to anyone.

Brace yourself for Craig Spector's first solo novel, TO BURY THE DEAD. With penetrating realism, Spector deals his readers a terrifying hand of hometown hell.

Throughout this powerful book the personal horrors of the main characters will bite hard, grab hold of you, and shake you like a rabid dog with a fresh kill that WILL NOT LET YOU GO! Spector writes from the heart, brutally aimed directly at yours. And he hits a bullseye.

Paul Kelly, a firefighter and paramedic, his wife Julie, a schoolteacher, and their daughter Kyra are living the blue-collar dream life…simple and honest. For Paul it is ideal and untouchable. In one night, someone close to Paul is torn from him, and the life he knew is forever changed, forever gone.

But life must go on, at work, at home, and under the intrusive eyes of the media.

When the killer is found, an urgent need to find an answer to his question - why? - demands that Paul follow the needs of his heart. His grief crosses over inside of him as he finds his life unbearable, his actions unthinkable, until ultimately Paul is faced with new life and death choices, not all of which are his to make.

The story is scorching and painful, and Spector guides you along with a heartbreaking fearlessness. His writing is flawless, hard hitting, and unnerving.

Spector's transitions are some of the best I've ever seen, luring the reader with tantalizingly sticky webs like a spider, sealing you in, demanding your blood.

You'll give it. Painfully . . . yet willingly.

My overall impression of TO BURY THE DEAD: Dynamite.

Five solid, kickass Bookwyrms, baby!

This review copyright 2000 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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