The Road of the Dead [Hardcover]

I usually don't pick up books at the library unless the inside front cover synopsis hints at romance or humor. The Road of the Dead hinted at neither, but something made me take it anyway. Perhaps I was just tyring to convince myself that the above statement wasn't true.
I wasn't expecting to be moved by this book -- I thought maybe I'd like it, maybe not. I didn't think it would make much of an impression on me. But I was wrong.
I really liked the portrayal of Cole and Ruben, the brothers who are searching for their sister's killer -- not, as in most other cases, for revenge, but simply so that they can bring her body home and bury her. The brothers are different -- as Ruben says, his mind is fast but his fists are slow, and Cole's mind is slow but his fists are fast -- but each is skillfully drawn. And the relationship between them is wonderful. It is the unattainable epitome of sibling relationships, and yet somehow realistic. It is the driving force behind the book, and a powerful force it is.
The Road of the Dead contains a slightly supernatural element, but it is worked in so seamlessly that after closing the book I found it odd that people can't see through the eyes of others who are far away in real life. It makes the story more complete, as well, and helps to give a first person narrative omniscience.
This book is well written and engaging, and I highly recommend it.

Ruben knew exactly when it happened. He was sitting in the backseat of an old Mercedes in his family's salvage yard when the feeling came over him. Ruben often left his own body and could attach himself to others. He could sense their thoughts and emotions. This is what happened when he felt his sister, Rachel, get attacked and murdered. He knew exactly the moment Rachel's life was taken from her.

Even though he knew it had happened and knew that the Dead Man killed her, Ruben didn't say anything to his family. He hoped he might be wrong. He realized he wasn't when the police contacted the family. The details were simple: Rachel, nineteen years old, was visiting an old school friend in the small village of Lychcombe on Dartmoor. After her visit was over, she left and made her way toward London to return home, but never made it. Her body was found the following morning, strangled, raped, and battered.

The most important thing to the family was to get her back. They wanted to bury her and put her to rest. After a trip to the police station to find out how long her body would be held, the family found out that the police would keep her until the case was closed; meaning the murderer had to be caught. The problem with that was, Ruben knew the murderer was already dead and buried and the case wouldn't be solved anytime soon.

Ruben's older brother, Cole, wasn't going to sit around and wait. He planned to go to the village to find out what happened himself and he planned to go alone. He didn't want his younger brother going along to worry about. Ruben knew what Cole was thinking, though, and his mother wanted him to go along to make sure Cole didn't get himself hurt. Cole's temper tended to get him in trouble. He took after his gypsy, bare-knuckle fighter father who was sentenced to a prison term for killing someone.

Even though their mother was worried about Ruben and Cole going away to look into the murder, no one could foresee the trouble in store for them once they started digging into Rachel's murder. As soon as they arrived in the village they knew they weren't welcome. Secrets were everywhere and no one wanted them to be dug up. Secrets that involved the entire village. Secrets that would lead them to pain, torture, death, and eventually the truth.

Kevin Brooks doesn't let us down. He has provided another heart-pounding, deeply emotional story with strong characters. THE ROAD OF THE DEAD is a great place to start if you haven't read any other books by this creative and unique author.

Reviewed by: Karin Perry

We start out with young Ruben Ford having a psychic experience, learning that somebody has killed his sister Rachel. Then the police show up and inform his mother (Mary) and his brother (Cole), his father is in prison for manslaughter, that his Rachel's body has been found, and it hadn't been an easy death. Ruben has another vision, and he knows that the person who killed Rachel is now also dead. Then the police inform the Fords they can't take Rachel home until her murder is solved.

Ruben's is a tough family of lower class, Irish/English citizens, they have no faith that the police will find out who killed Rachel, or why, and they don't care. Ruben and Cole are dispatched by Mary to go to Dartmoor to retrieve Rachel's body and bring her home, and to do this they have to find out who killed her, and where his body is buried.

Arriving in Dartmoor, they call Abbie, Rachel's friend, the woman that she spent her last night with, and arrange for her to put them up. Right away they know that something is wrong, as Ruben and Cole can get no answers or service in the local tavern, the local police warn them off, there is an attempted assault, and it seems that most of the businesses have closed up, making Dartmoor a virtual ghost town.

Abbie is not happy to see them, and seems to be hiding something, her husband Vince is even less happy, and seems to be hiding even more.

The more that they ask, the more they are threatened, and there are several violent confrontations and they are taken in finally by gypsies, who had a vision themselves that Dartmoor was the place that they had to relocate to.

Things start to unravel as the Ford boys are nobody to mess with. Cole is taciturn and cold, but also prone to sudden violence, and is as tough and hard as nails, and Ruben is quick, smart, and has psychic visions, and both are as stubborn as they come. They are not leaving until their job is done.

This is a hardboiled crime drama and mystery in the manner of the hardboiled crime melodramas of the fifties and early sixties. It's not for the squeamish, as Brooks does not tap dance around any of the violence or menace. Young Ruben is tortured and beaten, the racism against the gypsies is never glossed over, and Cole's violence becomes deadly.

The main problem is an over reliance on Ruben's astral projection. In the last fourth of the "Road Of The Dead" everything happens off stage and we only know of it through Ruben's visions. This feels like a cheat. Everything in the novel happens in real time, and we experience everything in its full force, and then the last quarter happens and we are totally distanced from it, and I felt cheated.

The ending though is just as tough as the rest of the novel, and there isn't a feel-good clean-cut ending. This is a hardboiled crime novel remember, nothing is ever easy, and there are almost never any winners. Four stars because of the over reliance on Ruben's visions in the novel's last quarter, which keep it from getting the full five. Otherwise, a tough crime novel that pulls no punches and Brooks writes down to no one. For mid- to later teens and up, but not for the real young, and not for the weak.