REVIEW OF THE DEAD GAME BY TOP1000REVIEWER Dii

REVIEW OF THE DEAD GAME BY TOP1000REVIEWER Dii

The Dead Game by Susanne Leist

The Dead Game
by Susanne Leist
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publication Date: August 29, 2013
Publisher: Outskirts Press, Inc
ISBN: 1478704489
Genre: Adult Paranormal Mystery
Number of Pages: 325
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
 

Overview:
Linda moves to a small town to live a quieter and simpler life. She opens a bookstore and makes new friends. Life is simple–that is until the dead body washes up on shore. Linda is horrified to find out that dead bodies and disappearing tourists are common for this town. As soon as the sun sets, she and her friends are stalked by dark shadows. But this is only the beginning.

Linda and her group receive an unsigned invitation to a party at the deserted house on the hill. They are afraid of the unfriendly hill residents, who only venture out of their homes at night. They attend the party. They are pursued through revolving rooms and dangerous traps, barely escaping with their lives. Two of their own remain trapped in the house. Or so they think.

The Dead Game has begun.



My Review:

The Dead Game by Susanne Leist
Doesn’t the name Oasis sound like an idyllic place to live? The perfect calm and relaxing place to settle down, Oasis has small town charm, small town neighbors, and even a mysterious and foreboding house about which horror stories are told, oh and bodies are being found, drained of blood. Who or what would drain the blood of its victims? What is the dark secret surrounding the town and its inhabitants? A newcomer to Oasis, Linda can’t help but get involved, especially after a harrowing experience at the End House. Is there a serial murderer going around acting out a vampire fantasy? Is it possible vampires are real? Are there good vamps and bad vamps? From the day Linda entered Oasis, her life was set on a path she could never have imagined, and her boyfriend just may be part of the nightmare she is now living.

The Dead Game by debut author Susanne Leist makes a bold statement by crossing the genre lines, serving up one scoop mystery, one scoop romance and topping it off with a dollop of dark paranormal fantasy. Have you ever been somewhere, listening to someone drone on, while carrying on your own mental conversation, full of snark and attitude? There is lots of that going, lightening those dark moments with a little quirky humor. The main character, Linda is inquisitive to the point of putting herself in danger, as well as her friends who are all on board for playing paranormal super sleuths. They form a rag-tag band of amateur P.I.s playing cat and mouse with some serious evil that has been hiding out in town, waiting to make their play for power and control.
The attention to detail is very strong, from the settings to the characters themselves, mental images are easy to conjure, as well as the actions each character is making. While it doesn’t slow the story down, (which by the way is twisting and convoluted right up to that last page), it does require paying attention, as does the dialogue, which at times seemed too calm and intelligent when I would have been a babbling fool!