BOOK REVIEW: Dead Connection by Charlie Price

8:36 PM

Original title: Dead Connection

Author: Charlie Price

Year of Publication: 2008

Number of pages: 225 [Paperback]

Available in: English

I read it in: English

"I think of myself as The Comforter. That's what I want on my stone.

If I do kick, I'll be the first Kiefer to have graduated from high school in California. That's the promise I made to Mom, my obligation. She won't miss me. I'm more in the way than anything."

Murray Kiefer is a high-schooler who can communicate with the dead and helps them pass the time. When he listens to a new voice in the cemetery where he spends his days, but he can't locate where it comes from, his search starts to prove it is who he thinks he is: a cheerleader called Nikki who has been missing for a few months. This way, Nikki becomes a mystery that many would like to solve, others remember and some even bury.

Dead Connection wasn't what I was expecting, definitely. When you read the counter cover we have the idea that the book is all about Murray and his abilities to talk to the dead, but in reality the book is more like an episode of some police crime tv show that has civilians involved, that one of ghosts.

The story is actually narrated by 6 different characters and each one of them brings a different point of view of the situation: Murray the psychic boy, Gates the Sheriff who is assigned the casa of Nikki, the missing cheerleader, Robert a guy with mental problems due to drug use, a drunk named Billup, and Janocheck y Pearl, the cemetery keeper and his daughter, respectively. So in reality the story revolves around Nikki, not Murray who is working on his own account to discover where the voice comes from.

In general the characters are enjoyable and realistic, each chapter is short (no more than 2 pages) and quite light, the narration is fast and without much detail, the violence isn't explicit and the connection Murray has with the dead are everything but scary, so in general it's a book really easy to digest.

Dead Connection makes a good train/bus read, but the way it's marketed can be a bit misleading and can affect how people read the book, at least when it begins, because as it's fast paced it captures your attention quickly. Also, due to its length some things are left unresolved and properly explained.