Jeff Strand: Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary)

Wordbeams (Ebook), ISBN 1-58785-005-2

I giggled, snorted, guffawed my way through Jeff Strand’s incredibly funny, incredibly dark, incredibly mysterious debut novel. If Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) reflects his wealth of talent, then Strand will soon acquire a fan club clamoring for his next release. And I intend to be right there, clamoring with the rest.

My husband, perturbed by my unrestrained mirth, asked, “What’s so funny?”

“Well, you see, this unemployed husband and father, Andrew Mayhem, allowed his insurance to lapse, hit another car, didn’t tell his wife and needed to make some money really fast. He agreed to dig up a grave so the corpse’s wife could recover a key.”

My husband looked at me askance before he stated, “That’s not funny.”

“Yes, but you see, Andrew took his friend Roger with him. They started to dig up the coffin — did I tell you it wasn’t in a cemetery? Before they get it open the supposed dead guy shoots through the coffin lid, shoots some more after they get it open, then claws his own eyes out before he dies.”

Still not amused, my husband shook his head, but he continued to watch me.

“Well, they find the key, re-bury the guy, and go back to the car. But before they can get there somebody shoots Roger with an arrow. Then the same somebody or maybe a different one, hits Andrew in the head with a chain and knocks him out.”

Along about then, the phone rang. I laid my Rocket eBook Reader ® on the coffee table and went to answer the phone. Wrong move. My husband grabbed the reader and started to read, chuckle, giggle and guffaw.

A well-written mystery, told in the first person, Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) should be on every mystery lover’s list of favorites, especially if the odd and unusual tickles the imagination.

Patricia Lucas White

Patricia Lucas White’s latest historical novel, To Last a Lifetime, was an Eppie finalist for 2003. To Last a Lifetime and two of her fantasy romances, the Sapphire Award-winning A Wizard Scorned and The Godmother Sanction, can be ordered through Hard Shell Word Factory. Her recent contemporary, PS, I’ve Taken a Lover, is available from Lionhearted Books.