Book Review: THE PATIENCE OF A DEAD MAN by Michael Clark

THE PATIENCE OF A DEAD MAN by Michael Clark (Michael Clark Books, August 2019) Paperback, 346 pages. ISBN #173379042X / 97817337890420  

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . .

He just spent everything on a house in disrepair, but he didn’t know someone was waiting inside. Tim Russell just put his last dollar on a handyman’s dream; a quaint but dilapidated farmhouse in New Hampshire. 

Newly single after a messy divorce, his plan is to live in the house as he restores it for resale. To his horror, as soon as the papers are signed and his work starts, ghosts begin to appear. A bone-white little boy. A woman covered in flies. 

Tim can’t afford to leave and lose it all, so he turns to his real estate agent Holly Burns to help him decide whether he has any shot at solving his haunted problem. Can they solve the mystery before he loses his investment…or maybe his life? 

 

My Five-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

NOTE: Let's get this cleared up right away. The author is not me, and is not related to me. We both just happen to be fans of horror fiction and also writers of same. (He's published; I'm not, except for a short story in a library benefit book). There's another difference. There is an "e" at the end of my last name. I worked hard to earn that and have no plans to relinquish it. 

     After finishing the short Chapter One, it becomes evident that this will not be your standard ghost story following traditional "rules". That is what makes this so entertaining and suspenseful - - the unpredictable nature of THE PATIENCE OF A DEAD MAN. 

     I was drawn to the horror genre during my young formative years, and when considering whether a particular work might be too scary for me to sleep that night with the lights off - - I would always turn to ghost stories as a kind of safe haven. To my young mind, ghost stories had some less frightening standards to adhere to: Ghosts only come out at night. They only haunt the places where they died or bad things happened to them. They can only scare, not kill. 

      It wasn't until I read Peter Straub's GHOST STORY many years later that I learned differently. It's been quite awhile between that book and this one, but now I have a reason to cower again when reading about ghosts. 

     In THE PATIENCE OF A DEAD MAN: The supernatural beings appear in daylight as well. They aren't limited to haunting a household or a barn or a cemetery but have free rein to roam an entire estate and show up on someone’s doorstep downtown. They can physically pick up objects and move them. They can kill. 

     As main character Tim Russell learns all these things during the course of renovating a historic farmhouse in New Hampshire - - I shared his growing apprehension. Clark has a keen ability to make his characters empathetic, and you'll probably end up sharing my concern for Tim and those close to him as the story progresses.

     There's a tragic history centered around the original occupants of the home that dates back to 1862 and the beginnings of the Civil War. The trio of ghosts are obviously unsettled spirits and manifest in different ways throughout the property. Some leave clues or guides to retell their sad story, which lead Tim and realtor/girlfriend Holly to conclude that one of the spirits wants them to perform some unknown task, and set about unravelling the history and the mystery. 

     There are many frightening moments along the way as things ratchet up and become stranger and more disturbing. If you get to Chapter Forty-Seven and don't have time to finish the book, stop and come back to it later. The short chapters in this section of the book are extremely compelling and suspenseful. I was on the edge of my chair. You'll want to get through this final section in one sitting.

     The story continues, as PATIENCE OF A DEAD MAN is Book One of a trilogy. However, there is a firm resolution here and this novel could easily be read as a stand-alone story. I've got a feeling things aren't going to be so easy for whoever owns the dangerous property in Book Two. There's also a character I'm dying to learn more about, as the reveals so far have been strange but also exciting.