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Jennifer drops out of med school to take care of her ailing father. After he passes, she takes a job working the night shift at the NYC morgue. She likes that the job is quiet, and she mostly works alone. Her main social contact is with a homeless man who lives in a cemetery next door. However, things change when a famous actor gets a DUI and is given community service at the morgue. Besides the gathering of press and groupies outside the morgue, Jennifer starts seeing apparitions and dead bodies moving. As a child, after her mother had passed, a psychic told her that she was sensitive to the spirit world. On top of the supernatural happenings, bodies begin to disappear, and a police detective named Marty gets involved.
A mixture of several genres, Gray’s novel will appeal most to readers who like crime dramas with supernatural elements. His sentences are crisp, and he adeptly paces the novel to keep the story engaging. The main character and the officer have interesting backgrounds which work well with the plot and genre of the work. However, the characters are still a little underdeveloped. The horror elements are written in a slightly removed manner, which will appeal especially to those who appreciate terrifying aspects in a narrative but don’t like to be scared themselves. The circumstances of the crimes unfold for the reader as they continue with the story rather than through the sleuthing of clues. Readers looking for a beach book with darker content than a summer romance will likely find this a quick and entertaining read.
A 2023 Eric Hoffer Book Award Grand Prize Short List book