Stephen King—he’s not; Dean Koontz? No way! Yet, the jacket cover proclaimed just those misconceptions when describing the talents of Joe Schreiber in his 2006 novel entitled Chasing the Dead. This same jacket touts a blurb from a little-known author who claims the story is like a tour of the Twilight Zone via Stephen King. Frankly, a more fitting name for it might have been Chasing Cohesion or Seeking an Original Theme.



Goodness Gracious

Many of us can readily understand the difficulties of fitting-in at the tender age of eleven, so we will find common ground with our misfit major characters Susan “Sue” Young and Phillip Chamberlain ... That is when they were ELEVEN… Not at thirtysomething as they are NOW, when this all takes place. Schreiber’s feeble attempt to construct a storyline which some might say resembles the anxiety-ridden works of Koontz, combined with the spine-tingling, heart-stopping anticipatory horror of early King falls far short of his goal, in my opinion.

The story opens as a backstory flashback set in August, 1983 New England introducing the reader to an eleven-year-old girl with “dark blond hair and a pretty face… her eyes, green and bright. But the remains of baby fat in her cheeks and the size of her lips have other kids making fun of her at school, calling her Duck-girl or Fat A$$ or worse” looking down on a man on the ground. She asks the eleven-year-old boy with her, ”What do we do? Should we call the cops?” He urgently responds, ”No way. No cops.” When she agrees after a few moments of consideration and a half-hearted attempt at ‘trying to talk’ her co-conspirator into summoning aid from law enforcement, our ‘courageous little hero’ assures his trusting side-kick ”I have an idea.”

Fast forward. Four days before Christmas, twenty-plus years later. Sue is now a thirtysomething-year-old recently divorced mom whose husband has abandoned mother and child, leaving ’…them with a yacht, an Architectural Digest home, and full ownership of the third largest real estate office in Boston’… and a nightmare of a situation to handle alone. Veda, their 18-month-old daughter, has been kidnapped. Her abductor warns the distraught mother not to (yeah, you guessed it) go to the police or she will never get her daughter back alive.

And, just what else did we expect, huh?



Still NEEDED Character Development

Sadly, there is a dearth of characters and of character development in Chasing the Dead, just as was evident in Gone. The flat, card-board-like personalities that populated Kellerman’s latest novel just as with Schreiber’s gives reader no reason to connect with the characters. One still wants to say, 'So, WHO cares!?!!' Unlike Kellerman, Schreiber just stuck in a character whenever he felt he needed some kind of diversion for his sole action character as she mindlessly did inexplicable acts that not many in this era of knowledge would ever consider doing. One such instance is when the need to discredit or smear the absent husband, an old friend of the husband’s appears to validate Sue’s sense of responsibility. The husband who’d promised a favor to this friend has, lo and behold, vanished without doing so, leaving the abandoned (though financially well-off) wife to do what he has not, even though it is his best friend with whom he’d spent his bachelor days ‘bar-hopping and waitress-chasing.’

I know this latest generation takes much for granted and hardly, if ever, concerns themselves with rules of any kind. However, our up-and-coming resident horror writer does not appear to even write his novel with the barest of minimum thoughts of reason. And, oh, did I mention the husband’s identity? Remember the boy who talked the girl—Sue, of course—into not alerting the cops. Yeah, right… Phillip, one and the same. But, just wait until you—nay, you’d never be that pig-headed to read this… not even to find out about THAT little plot twist. Believe me, it’s not even worth THAT.



My Conclusions

Among Schreiber’s misdeeds in this annoying horror-operatic offering is his misuse of words. For example, Sue calls her nanny in search of the woman who cares for her infant daughter and her disoriented greeting is described as a ”disorganized-sounding ‘hello’.” I’ll admit I could be a bit picky when it comes to my suspense/horror/’scary’-story writers and their books. I did grow up with the likes of King, Koontz, Cook, & Straub – real American masters of horror/terror. Nonetheless, Chasing the Dead was a lukewarm contender for the title of horror writer, though at times he proved to pen a few disgusting and shocking words to remind we readers of America’s past witch-hunting, superstitious puritanical acts toward those who thought differently than those in charge.

IMHO this 196 page novel is a pretender, not a contender.

So, now that I've once more done my civic--and professional--duty, you can’t blame me if you still go ahead and read it. Regrettably, Joe Schreiber’s Chasing the Dead gets 1 out of 5 stars. And, as for recommending it? My advice to you is don’t bother if you ever enjoyed the original works of King, Koontz, Straub, or Rod Serling. It’ll only upset you.




As always, thanks to all for reading, rating and commenting. Peace… and later!



Recommended: No