When people start making improvements to their homes, it can
bring out the worst in them. It can also unearth some of the
most temperamental and hateful creatures you've ever had the
misfortune to meet. Some of them don't even bother
introducing themselves to you. They just stick around all
invisible and make the air poisonous with their venom that
eventually you're going to have affecting you.
In this edition of Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner's
anthologies, they have tackled the topic of home
improvements and how creatures of the undead would fit in.
What they came up with is an entertaining and, often,
chilling assortment of tales centered on improving houses.
To begin with, there's a never before published Sookie
Stackhouse story that is sure to delight fans of that
series. Sookie and Sam are helping Tara and her husband
remodel a sun porch to turn it into a bedroom for Tara's
twins. Everything goes along pretty well until an old blood
stained hammer turns up from inside the wall. After that,
nothing seems to go right. The story behind the hammer and
the way they resolve it makes for a very entertaining ghost
story.
Meet Broahm, a wizard in the story Wizard Home Security,
written by Victor Gischler. He's been having some issues
with break-ins at his home and his supplies and spells have
been stolen. Obviously, his security isn't strong enough so
he hires a young wizard with security as his specialty to
beef up the safety on his house. Needless to say, Broahm
never saw it backfiring on him.
Vampire Elyna Gray wants to buy a condo so that she can
remodel it to become her home. She also has some very
personal ties to this place that she's not willing to share
with just anyone. Problems soon hit, though, as she crosses
the wrong vampire in this captivating story by Patricia Briggs.
Rochelle Krich offers Squatter's Rights, the story of a
couple that moves into a house with a bad history with plans
to make it their own. It doesn't take long before the bad
vibes start to take over the wife, and that's not a good sign.
Famous writer Heather Graham offers a story of a home of a
different kind. Entitled Blood on the Wall, this story is
set in New Orleans, where someone, or something, is going
around ripping people to shreds.
James Grady brings The Mansion of Imperatives to this "short
story party." Two couples decide to totally renovate an old
Gothic style home only to find that evil definitely exists
and it can make you do what it wants.
The Strength Inside is presented by Melissa Marr in her
story of other worldly beings trying to co-exist with
humans. It also begs the question of just how evil the
Homeowner's Association can be.
Toni L. P. Kelner ends the anthology with In Brightest Day
with a cheerful little tale of a woman that raises the dead
for a living. Her current "client" just keeps
dying---again--- before he can complete what he was brought
back to do.
There are so many things to say about HOME IMPROVEMENT:
UNDEAD EDITION. These are delightful, entertaining and
chilling stories. Some of them you'll be carrying around in
your head for days. Do yourself a favor and spend a rainy
afternoon with this book.
There's nothing like home renovation for finding skeletons
in the closet or otherwordly portals in the attic. Now, for
any homeowner who's ever wondered, "What's that creaking
sound?" or fans of "how to" television who'd like a little
unreality mixed in with their reality shows, editors
Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner return with an
all-new collection of the paranormal perils of Do-It-Yourself.
Sookie Stackhouse resides in these pages, in a
never-before-published story by #1 New York Times
bestselling author Charlaine Harris. And New York Times
bestselling authors Patricia Briggs, James Grady, Heather
Graham, Melissa Marr, and nine other outstanding writers
have constructed more frightening and funny fixer-upper
tales guaranteed to shake foundations and rattle readers' pipes.
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