Dead Connection

A girl named Nikki Parker apparently is missing. No body has turned up. The police have three suspects, including her ex-boyfriend, a tennis coach, and a bus driver.

Murray is a high school boy who is is unpopular at school. His mother had been arrested for prostitution and tends to still play around a lot. He has the ability to talk to the dead in cemeteries, dealing only with the relatively younger persons in the graves. He spends most of his time in the cemetery talking to the dead. They are, in effect, his only friends.

Deputy Gates is trying to find her. He's a policeman whose own son is dead.

Pearl's is also a student at the school and her father is the groundskeeper for the cemetery so she knows about Murray. She confronts him and tries to find out what he is doing and gets made when he won't tell her. She plans to get even with him for not being friendly by planting things on him that make him look like a thief. Pearl's own mother is dead and behaved much like Murray's mother does now.

Another central character is Vern Billup of the Public Affairs Office. Heates Murray and he has a major drinking problem coupled with a really bad attitude. He ends up getting suspended for drinking and harassing a female employee.

In a book with a lot of interesting characters, there's also Mister Robert Barry Compton who is, in essence, a young punk. Works fast food three times a week. He's on numerous medications. His mind doesn't work well. He's paranoid and suffers from schizophrenia, etc. Apparently saw Nikki abducted.

Murray believes he hears a new voice in the cemetery but he can't pinpoint its location. Meanwhile, Pearl tries to play a nasty prank on Murry but it backfires. She ends up apologizing to Murray and they sort of become friends. Murray asks her to help him try and figure out this new voice.

Murray and Pearl locate the voice and it's Nikki. Murray is able to talk to her about her death.

The rest of the book revolves around Gates trying to get enough evidence to convict someone; trying to find out just which person is actually guilty, and showing he doesn't believe in Murray's ability to talk to the dead. One of the main characters is shot and nearly killed; one goes bonkers and does the shooting; one turns out not to be as bad as he first seemed.

It's a really good book; it's the kind that you definitely want to keep reading to find out what is going to happen next. The way the various chapters deal with different characters also is somewhat different and works well with the story. Definitely a book that's worth reading.


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