Friday, January 22, 2010

Supernatural: Nevermore by Keith R.A. DeCandido


I love the CW series Supernatural. I actually stumbled onto the books based on the show on one of my regular searches I do at the bookstore every couple of months when I have some extra time at work, like covering the customer service person's break. I like to plug in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and look for any new books about that series. Well, disappointingly, other than graphic novels, which I'm not a huge fan of, there aren't any new books. But one thing I always do is to click on the authors names and see what other books they might have out. Keith DeCandido has written one or two Buffy books, and I enjoyed them, so when I clicked on his name and found a Supernatural novel, well, I immediately went to the SciFi section to find it. And I bought it of course.


I like how this book was set between two episodes of the show, instead of just totally recapping an episode like some tv show novels do. What's also great is that they tell you what two episodes it is supposed to be between.


Anyway, as you might have guessed from the title, there is a supernatural mystery having to do with Edgar Allen Poe. First there is a murder when a person is bricked up inside a wall and left to die. Then an orangutan kills a person. While the boys are there, they catch the suspect in the act of burying body parts under the floorboards of an apartment. All these are part of a supposed ritual proposed by a "fake" psychic guy to raise the dead, in this case, trying to raise Edgar Allen Poe. At the same time, they're helping out a friend of their friend Ash, the computer geek back at Jo and Ellen's bar. He's an old hippie/rocker guy who has a ghost in his house every night after his band has a gig. So they're staying with the guy, instead of their normal cheap motel room, trying to find out who his ghost is and get rid of her.


The story was good, and did have some of the normal humor. But unfortunately, what is so good about Dean's humor on the show, is his facial expressions and the way he delivers the lines. While I can kind of see that in my head as I read, it's just not the same. After watching a new episode of Supernatural last night, and enjoying Dean so much I literally laughed out loud, I understood just where the book came out flat. I do have 2 more books based on the series, and I will enjoy reading them too anyway. Don't think they're both by this same author, but I'm sure they'll still be good.