Graverobbers Wanted: No Experience Necessary (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
Writing horror-comedy is tough...Writing disturbing, gruesome horror-comedy is much, much tougher…Writing disturbing, gruesome horror-comedy while maintaining a light-hearted touch on the narrative is bordering on metaphysically impossible...Jeff Strand, for the most part, pulls it off. Now, this isn't a perfect novel, and there are portions I think could (and should) have been tightened up and made better. I wobbled back and forth between 3 and 4 stars as I was reading and decided to split the baby and go with 3.5 stars, leaving room for improvement in subsequent installments. One postive sign for the series is that, after finishing this, I was anxious to read the next story, Single White Psychopath Seeks Same. That tells me I enjoyed it more than 3 itty bitty stars would normally indicate. I think the potential for the series which is through the roof given that there are not a whole lot of people doing good, gore-related comedies out there....must be a niche audience. While this is clearly an an early work of Strands, the upside for greatness is definitely lurking within, and I am looking forward to seeing what happens next. PLOT SUMMARY Andrew Mayhem is a very married father of two with slackeritis and a serious case of the sarcasms. He’s unmotivated in the extreme when it comes to work and isn’t the most responsible person you’ll ever meet. After failing miserably as a unlicensed private investigator and needing to come up with some quick cash to “settle” with the owner of a car he hit (which the Mrs. is blissfully unaware of), Andrew finds himself willing to make a really dumb decision. Enter the really dumb decision. A mysterious and evasive woman hires our everyman to locate and bring her a key. Unfortunately, the key is buried in a shallow grave with the corpse of her recently deceased husband. After initially responding with some “WTF” and “no effing way,” our femme fatale gives Andrew $20,000 reasons to change his mind. He does....and accepts the job. MISTAAAAAKE........ From there, things get crazy, violent and PSYCHOlarious as Andrew finds himself involved in a messed up bizzaro mystery tied to an organization known as Ghoulish Delights. Hint: get your sick bags ready. I will leave the rest to you, but along the way Andrew will encounter: **an amoral errand boy named the Apparition,**a sadistic, game playing serial killer,**a horrific demonstration of the versatility of the swiss army knife; and**a pair of cannibal puppets named Gaggles and Boo-BooIMPORTANT: remember that Gaggles wears the cowboy hat, Boo-Boo chomps first and it takes 58 bites to kill a woman…don’t forget. This is fun, funny and seriously fucked up. Andrew is a very likeable guy who you will find yourself rooting for even when he's making one of those OMG decisions that everybody knows he's going to regret. Despite the dark, graphic nature of some of the scenes, the story itself does not take itself too seriously and even the extreme parts are tinged with humor. 3.5 stars. Recommended.
Goodreads describes this book as:If you're desperate for money, searching for a little adventure, and aren't the most responsible person in the world, you can end up doing some outrageous things. Which is how Andrew Mayhem, an extremely married father of two, ends up accepting $20,000 to find a key...a key buried with a body in a shallow grave. When the body turns out to not only be still alive, but armed and dangerous, he realizes that he should have held out for more money. His simple evening of morally questionable manual labor becomes a bizarre game of wits and courage played with an unseen killer with a twisted sense of humor. It's a game that will bring him to a group of filmmakers known as Ghoulish Delights, who are hiding a secret that will test every last bit of Andrew's nerve to discover. And it's impossible to find a babysitter.I don't even know where to start with this book. Jeff Strand has a fabulous way of writing characters that seem like they could be your best friend, coworker or neighbor. His main character, Andrew Mayhem, has a quick wit and sharp tongue that made me laugh out loud several times. He thinks he can be a detective though he has no real experience in law enforcement or detecting. No, he seems to fall into these situations that become horrific before they get better.His cohort in crime, Roger, has his hands full keeping Andrew from doing anything too outrageous and tries to be the voice of reason though sometimes his reasoning isn't any better. Andrew rarely has a plan go the way it was supposed to - usually based on something he'd seen on TV that worked for whatever action star it was.I was so engrossed in the story that I didn't even think about trying to figure out who the killer was until towards the end - then I decided to let it be a surprise. I was surprised.This is the first book in the Mayhem series - the second being "Single White Psychopath Seeks Same". The third, as I'm sure I mentioned in another post is "Casket for Sale, only used once". Both are on my Nook ready to be read but I don't think I should read another of his without a different author in between - I start finding the stories too predictable when I do that.This book was great - I can't wait to read the next one plus his other books not part of the series "Dweller", "Specimen 313", and "Mandibles". I easily give this book an "A" and have to say I have a new favorite author!
What do You think about Graverobbers Wanted: No Experience Necessary (2005)?
I bought GRAVEROBBERS...based on the interview that JA Konrath and Jeff Strand did with each other back in March, I think. This book made me laugh and scared the bejeezus out of me. Andrew is trying to find his niche in life. Some might call him a slacker. I know I'd be hard pressed to be married to a guy like this..maybe could be a friend. He's smart and funny, really a smartass is what he is and I am drawn to funny smart smartasses....He and his buddy, Roger, find themselves pulled into a way to make $20,000. All they have to do is dig up a coffin carrying the body of the husband of the woman who hired them. Then all hell breaks loose. Andrew is fairly quick on his feet in a believable way. I really never felt the need to roll my eyes at any time while reading his terror filled adventure. He finds himself in this situation, he continues with the terror filled mystery when others would have just given in. And it felt real. I imagine this book would be what the never-ending series of 'Saw' flicks could be like. The murder, torture, and the mechanisms used to get there are beyond my normal ick factor, yet I couldn't stop reading the story.Five terror and funny beans
—Vickie
The first of four books published (as of this review) in the Andrew Mayhem series introduces Andrew as a struggling father who takes on a strange job digging up a grave for $10,000 (his cut).This is more of a mystery thriller, complete with a whodunit, as opposed to the horror humor tale that Strand has written and I enjoyed immensely like Wolf Hunt. Nor was it much like his excellent straight horror tale Dweller or even his humor thriller zombie tale, The Sinister Mr. Corpse. Instead, it's more of mystery fare sort of a la Naked Gun (I'm starting to wonder if Strand is related to Zucker?) with a less funny Frank Drebbin character (Mayhem isn't even a private detective). You can tell Strand wrote Graverobbers, as it has his telltale witty comebacks and superb dialogue.The author replied to me in a group recently that these books were better than the short tales in the collection he co-authored with J.A. Konrath entitled, Suckers. I agree this book is better than those short Mayhem tales, but I'm still somewhat lukewarm on Mayhem. He's not a very likable or good father and his deductive skill are questionable. He's sort of like a wannabe Inspector Closeau sans the clumsiness meets the aforementioned Frank Drebbin sans the partner with the brains. Just like Inspector Gadget has Penny to help with the brains, I think Mayhem needs a better sidekick than the one he has in this story (definitely a far cry from Watson). Perhaps in future stories in the series he gets one.Like the other books I've read by Strand, this is a very fast read. His style doesn't lend to slow reads and that's a good thing for humor (if one joke doesn't work, move quickly to another). At times, Strand reads like a stand-up comedian doing fiction. I dig it. Authors who are fast reads earn bonus points with this reader.As for humor? Jeff Strand is funny. He knows how to write some laugh out loud sentences and creates several funny scenes in Mayhem's debut novel. For that execution alone, I will eventually read Mayhem book #2. Maybe I'll warm up to Mayhem himself more as the series continues. Graverobbers is 3.5 stars for me, but I'll round up because the author made me laugh in several places and kept me turning pages. Thank you for the laughs, again and again.
—Todd Russell
sad but true: a surprisingly bland piece of work...is this really the same author who penned Dweller? the dialogue is insipid and the frequent dips into mawkish setimentality become nauseous. after reading endless descriptions about how adorable the protagonist's wife and child were, it became a real challenge not to imagine choking them both out. perhaps it is some demented labor of love for the author, or a useful exorcism that is needed in order to avoid running wildly amuck in the streets. but yet there is no sense of abandon, let alone suspense, to be found anywhere in this short but tedious novel.
—mark monday
