Review and Giveaway: Broken Hearted Ghoul (A Taxi for the Dead a Paranormal Mystery) by Joyce and Jim Lavene

REVIEW:

Once again a zombie story in which... Stop! No, it is not a traditional zombie story. You will not be dealing with any apocalypse, it is neither the end of our civilization nor the other, and it is not a race for survival with man-eating monsters pursuing the characters. Did I make you curious, isn’t?

Do you know about Faust’s tale? If there the main character, after a life dedicated to science, feels that he has wasted his life and has not tasted the joys and pleasures of it, before death he makes a pact with the devil and sells him his soul in exchange of a new chance in life, in our novel the situation is not quite so dramatic. Nobody sells his soul, and the devil's role is played by a Zombie Master (not me – for those who knows what ZM stands for in GZM :D!). Now, do not think that the Zombie Master is a naive or a benefactor. In exchange for some errands, he gives those who are dying a bonus of twenty years of life to live with the loved ones. Thus they are transformed into zombies, but not some creatures in putrefaction, but identical to the living people only that... they are dead. For this period of twenty years ... not twenty and a month, not twenty-one, to be respected, Zombie Master has, let’s call them, "drivers for zombie": the undertakers, whose role it is to collect those to whom the bell has struck. Why so strict? You'll find for yourselves why, and what are the consequences of the breach of the contract terms.

Such a “driver” is also the main female character of the novel, a former cop, who carries out her duty, with more or less reluctantly, until one day when everything goes haywire. As faddy as it was the world in which she lived gets fantastic accents and all sorts of sorcerers and more strange creatures start to populate it. How wouldn’t be enough that they are dead, the zombies wake up hunted. Yes, the zombies, who are usually the predators, here they become the main course on the menu. Whose menu? It is said that hate and love are the most powerful inputs of the human psyche. If we put them together and we will associate them with a supernatural being, eager for blood and vengeance, do you still give any chance to escape to the poor zombie? Find out the denouement reading the book by yourself and I guarantee you will not be disappointed, even you will have a little surprise in the ending.

A book that you will read with pleasure, in which the explosive action entwines with a bit of humour, in which mystery becomes thriller, the thriller gets horror accents and everything is wrapped up in a fantasy, whose limits oscillate throughout the story. A new and interesting approach of the zombie myth, a myth that, for the readers’ satisfaction, is constantly reinvented.

Happy Reading!

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About the authors:

Joyce and Jim Lavene write bestselling mystery fiction. They have written and published more than 60 novels for Harlequin, Berkley, and Charter Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. They live in rural North Carolina with their family, Quincy, their black cat, and their rescue