Jeff Strand Reviews

Page Two

Added September 4, 2006

Andrew Mayhem: Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary)

Review 2

Author: Jeff Strand
Publisher: Hard Shell Word Factory
Available At: www.hardshell.com
Publishing Date: August 2002
Genre: Fiction: Suspense/Thriller/Horror/Humor
Format: Ebook download in Mobi Rocket, PDF, PDB, LIT, FUB, PRC, IMP
Price: $5.50
ISBN: 0759927391
Author Email/Website: members.aol.com/jeffstrand/
Reviewer: Talya Imbaro
Rating: 7.5 Gargoyles

Andrew Mayhem is trying to find himself. He has been working a variety of jobs in order to decide what we wants to do with his life. So far no job has lasted longer than two weeks, and he is now desperate to pay for damage to a car he recently hit - without telling his wife.

When a woman approaches him and his best friend Roger and asks them to dig up her husband's body and find a key for $20,000 he says yes, despite his misgivings. He should have listened to his inner voice. The husband isn't dead, but dies shortly after being dug up, Roger is shot with a crossbow, and Andrew is kidnapped and is forced to listen to the woman that hired them be murdered.

What follows is a mad chase to beat the murderer at his own game as Andrew follows clues and hints to save the lives of five innocent victims.

I enjoyed reading this book, having found it amusing and entertaining. Andrew is aware that what he is doing isn't always the smartest or right thing, but still does it, as he feels it is the best choice he can make at the time. He takes a horrible situation and rises to the challenge. Mr. Strand manages to take a horrific topic and still elicit laughter and smiles as I read along, always wondering what the next page would bring.

Return to top of page.

Added July 6, 2006

Andrew Mayhem: Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary)

Review 1

Author: Jeff Strand
Publisher: Hard Shell Word Factory
Available At: www.hardshell.com
Publishing Date: August 2002
Genre: Fiction: Suspense/Thriller/Horror/Humor
Format: Ebook download in Mobi Rocket, PDF, PDB, LIT, FUB, PRC, IMP
Price: $5.50
ISBN: 0759927391
Author Email/Website: members.aol.com/jeffstrand/
Reviewer: Summer Lasaire
Rating: 8.5 Gargoyles

Simply saying that it's been one of those days, or rather a string of some of the worst days of Andrew Mayhem's life would be a massive understatement.

Andrew is both a husband and a father and even he wouldn't say that he's the best at either. In trying to find work that he can be happy with, he's jumped from job to job....to job for years. Thankfully his wife is gainfully employed as a nurse, so they're not doomed to living on the streets.

Sitting in a coffee shop with his best bud Roger Tanglen-that doesn't serve the best coffee by the way-Andrew is approached by a sexy blonde that asks him to do her a little favor, just simply to dig up her recently deceased husband to find a key that he was buried with, in a shallow grave, in the back forty of an out of the way park. You'd think that Andrew would just walk away, but no, for the twenty grand the blonde was offering, he grudgingly took the job....dragging Roger along with him of course-what are best friends for? A few things happen when they're dropped off with the tools that they need to dig up the grave. First, it's quite a hike to the clearing where the grave lies. Next, Andrew and Roger find that the husband was buried alive....and still is so-until he rips out his own eyeballs, after shooting at them with the gun that just happens to be in the casket with him, and dies of what they figure is a heart attack. And finally ending up being kidnapped, tied to a chair and threatened with the ending of both his and Roger's lives if he didn't do as he was told. A few other things happen in the course of the night, but then you'll have to read it to find out the full extent of his very bad day.

The next few days aren't any better, believe it or not, they're worse. Being led around town by a series of grisly clues to save the lives of four people he doesn't know, Andrew and Roger end up, beat up, shot at and at one point Roger is on the receiving end of The Dismemberment Game. Not a place you want to be, trust me. Oh yeah, and his kids end up being kidnapped by this psychopath and Andrew is the only one that is allowed to try to save them. But the question is, can he save them or is the killer just trying to see just how far Andrew is willing to go to try?

Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) is a unique story that has mystery, humor, horror and surprises galore. From one minute to the next, I had absolutely no idea which way I was going to be pulled along with Andrew, as the twists, turns and surprises were, to say the least, hard to predict. Jeff Strand has a unique gift in blending humor and horror that had me not only glued to my chair, unable to put this book down, but had me guessing at, and coming up with the wrong answer every time I thought I had the killer's identity figured out. Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) is a true pleasure to read with its fully fleshed out, secondary characters and the myriad plot twists, mixed with both humor and the macabre. I highly recommend this story; it'll definitely take you out of your every day life and remind you that things could always be worse.

Return to top of page.

This page was last updated on January 1, 2008

This page and all its contents are Copyright© 2002-2008 In the Library Reviews and the individual reviewers. Except where noted, all graphics are Copyright© Eos Development and are used with permission. All book covers are Copyright© their respective publishers and are used with permission. The In the Library Reviews logo is Copyright© 2002 by In the Library Reviews/Sharyn McGinty. Site maintained by In the Library Reviews.