Review of Lori Titus’s “Lazarus”

Luella Pembry can speak to the dead. Ghosts are all around her, and ask that she do their bidding. She is called to a place called Lazarus, where others have magical talents of their own, and the dead tend to rise, though this type of dead are zombies, and they seek to destroy the living.

Lazarus is a tightly written novella that immerses the reader in the old west, with a twilight zone bent to it. Its mix of magic and the grit of the old west keeps the reader intrigued page after page. Lori Titus certainly knows how to spin a tale that kept me wondering what was next. I guess it sounds trite to say, but this is a story with a little bit of something for everyone: mystery, romance, horror, adventure, a strong leading woman and man, deception, and solid, compelling characters.

I don’t think I’ve read a story that combined ghosts and zombies and layered on top of that mysticism before. Lori does an excellent job of combining those elements and making the story flow well from start to finish. Again, this is a novella, so perhaps my only complaint is that this isn’t a full fledged novel with more story to it-I would have liked to seen more of this little town in California and the people who inhabit it. So I guess the brevity of this tale isn’t really a complaint at all-Lori Titus has me craving more.

Lazarus can be found at http://www.amazon.com/Lazarus-Lori-Titus/dp/1453775722/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290699294&sr=1-1