A Book A Week

There's probably very little we wouldn't do for our family. For Malcolm, that means keeping watch beside his dying mother's bed during her final hours. Their relationship is...complicated, to say the least. Ask anyone in town, and they'll tell you she's a witch. Maybe that's why she's lived such an impossibly long life. Tonight, though, it's just Malcolm, his sister-in-law (his brother couldn't be bothered to show up), his dying mother, and the mysterious figure cloaked in darkness standing silently beneath a tree in the front yard.

As death draws near, Malcolm's mother makes one final request: take her body to her final resting place in Maine. There's a time limit, of course, and she warns that failing to get her there in time will have terrifying consequences. Malcolm isn't sure what to believe, but when strange things begin happening almost immediately after her death, he realizes he has little choice. Whatever his mother was, whatever she knew, her final wish may be the only thing standing between him and something far more sinister.

From its opening pages, Carry Me to My Grave immerses readers in a horror mystery shrouded in questions and unease. Who is this woman? Why is her death so consequential? Who is the shadowy figure waiting for her final breath? Christopher Golden poses these questions in a way that makes it nearly impossible to stop reading. I found myself racing through the opening chapters, desperate to understand what was happening and why.

To Golden's credit, the answers are well worth the wait. As he's done throughout much of his career, he takes a familiar corner of the horror genre and finds a fresh angle into it. I won't spoil exactly what that angle is because discovering it alongside Malcolm is one of the novel's greatest pleasures. Better still, the horror is grounded by characters grappling with complicated family dynamics, giving the story an emotional weight that keeps it from becoming mere spectacle. While Carry Me to My Grave isn't my favorite of Golden's novels, it's another atmospheric, satisfying horror story from an author who clearly understands what makes the genre tick.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2026, 58)