Book: Play Dead

Anne Frasier
Thriller
Onyx / 2004
Kindle / 384 Pages
Series / Standalone

Frasier (Sleep Tight, etc.) has perfected the art of making a reader's skin crawl, which is evident from this book's very first scene, in which a medical examiner discovers in the midst of an autopsy that the cadaver he's working on is really a live person. Set in Savannah, Ga., this exceptional thriller follows the hunt for the deranged person who's drugging people so that their minds remain wide awake even as their bodies resemble death. The creepiness factor increases when Frasier introduces homicide detective Elise Sandburg, who was abandoned in a cemetery as a baby and who knows Gullah spells and culture. Elise's partner, anti-social David Gould, is equally strange; his past holds secrets so dark he should be under psychiatric care. Formerly with the FBI, Gould currently lives in a rundown, foul-smelling apartment and sleeps with a prostitute who works for a voodoo priestess. As the two detectives follow leads to the priestess and the former college professor who researched the drug, they forge a tentative bond and come to terms with their own troubled pasts. Frasier's characters are not only fully realized, but fascinating to boot, and she evokes the dark, mystical side of Savannah with precision and skill. Appropriately, this unsettling tale closes with a grim children's rhyme and a spell for "Elise's Follow-Me-Boy Mojo."

I picked this book up because Look at the cover doesn’t it just seem SPOOKY?!?!

What I liked the Most? The death doc’s name is Casper – this made me smile.

What I liked the Least? Is the pacing of the book – it feels kind of stunted.

Review:Well this book was appropriately creepy & confusing. But I’m not really sure I actually enjoyed it you know what I mean. I found the writing to be a little mushy & twisted – completely fragmented at times. I got another one of her books to try.

I really must give the author credit – the research and details are truly spectacular.

When I read that there is not a uniform determination of death I just had to look it up and lo & behold – there isn’t. Freaky, creepy.

Recommended to: Fans of creep

Best Quote: Apparently the Civil War was still going on; the South just hadn’t gotten the memo telling them it was over.