Grave Intent

Grave Intent

Deborah Leblanc

Leisure, July 2005, $6.99, 374 pp.

ISBN 0843955538

Ephraim Stevenson branded his infant daughter with the imprint of a gold coin that he made for her so that she will have payment when she dies and not be stuck in the netherworld.  At the age of nineteen Thalia dies in a freak riding accident in a small town in Louisiana; her family arranges for her funeral to be held at Savoy’s  Ephraim takes the gold coin off the ring he is wearing and puts it in his daughter’s coffin.

Michael Savoy’s father Wilson comes back home during the Stevenson funeral because some very bad people want to collect on his gambling debts.  He sees the gold coin and steals it with every intention of using it to pay off his bookie but he loses it before that can happen.  The ghost of Thalia’s grandfather warns Michael that unless the coin is returned to Thalia within forty eight hours, death will come for his loved ones.  Michael’s wife and daughter are at their summer retreat under supernatural siege with his child’s life slowly slipping away, Michael and Wilson are also under ghostly attack at the funeral home.  Only returning the gold coin to Thalia will save his daughter from certain death.

GRAVE INTENT is a chilling horror story worthy of a Bram Stoker nomination.  Wilson’s sets events in motion by stealing from a corpse, which doesn’t phase this hedonist, who symbolizes selfish me-me negative behavior; in contrast Michael and his wife risk their lives to save their daughter and readers believe they would insure that Thalia has the money to take passage to the other side even if their offspring was not in danger.

Harriet Klausner