Click here to read reviewer Luan Gaines' take on Chasing the Dead.
Bostonian Sue Young receives a phone call from a stranger who tells her that he has her infant daughter, Veda. He does not want a ransom, but he instructs her not to call the police - he has her phone tapped, and he wants to terrify Sue by giving her directions to follow if she wants her ten-month-old daughter back safe and unharmed. On the other hand, if she does not meet his deadline and follow his directions, he threatens her with graphic depictions of what he will do to the baby.
The faceless abductor leads Sue into a blinding snowstorm on the longest night of the
year. The voice on the other end of the line somehow knows all about her past, buried
long ago.
He provides her with a map highlighted with the route she is to take, small New England
towns with three things in common: a statue; lonely, dark winding roads; and loads of snow. Every time her cell phone rings, more bad news is transmitted, leaving her afraid and desperate to do everything just right for Veda’s sake.
Beset with anxiety that it telegraphs to the reader, this story is filled with horrific supernatural episodes that grow more terrifying and bizarre the deeper the reader goes. What is his motive? Why Sue and Veda? What caused these zombies? Is Veda really okay? Sue battles exhaustion both physically and mentally as the night goes on and on, until she learns just how much trauma and fright the human body is capable of absorbing.
Joe Schreiber sets a neck-breaking pace in his ferociously tense supernatural thriller debut. With the skill of masters like Dean Koontz and Stephen King, Schreiber creates a tableau of shock, horror, death and destruction that
will draw you in and leave you hoping for a sequel.