Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) by Jeff Strand

If somebody comes up to you and offers you $20K to dig up a grave and retrieve a key from the corpse, it would be a wise idea to turn down the assignment. However, Andrew Mayhem, a married father of two small children, is anything but wise. He can’t hold down a job and makes some seriously bad decisions. Despite that, he has some endearing qualities, and when push comes to shove, he’ll do whatever he has to, to keep his children safe. When Andrew and his friend take the assignment, the corpse turns out to be alive and wielding a gun. Things only get worse from there as Andrew comes across Ghoulish Delights, which fronts as a production company for hire for people wanting to star in short horror movies. It becomes very apparent to Andrew that Ghoulish Delights is a front for something far more serious.



This is the first novel I’ve read from Jeff Strand that is geared to adults. He’s great at young adult novels, and as it turns out, he’s pretty good at writing more mature themes. The protagonist is a very flawed character, and at first I wasn’t entirely fond of him, but as the book wore on, I grew more fond of him, particularly late in the novel when he had to save his children from serious harm. It’s something that any parent can relate to. My biggest quibble with the novel was that there were a couple of scenes that were a bit unrealistic and it became hard to suspend disbelief. What worked really well was how things just kept getting worse and worse for Andrew, and he had to show some serious mettle and resourcefulness to get out of them. This novel highlighted one of the things I really enjoy about Strand’s writing—his ability to put the screws to his characters and put them in some difficult situations, and just when you think it can’t get any worse for them, they do. This was an enjoyable novel, and I look forward to reading the second in the series.