After Silas Umber's father mysteriously disappears, Silas and his mother move back to Lichport, the dying seashore town where his father was an Undertaker. Lichport is a town cut off from the world where the inhabitants follow the old ways and everyone looks to Silas to take his father's place, but what exactly did his father do and where did his father go?
His search leads him through the back alleys, cemeteries, and hidden places of Lichport where he learns that being an Undertaker has a far different meaning here in Lichport. An Undertaker is the person who settles the dead in the Shadowlands. He is responsible for bring the Peace to the ghosts, spirits, and newly deceased. This job now falls to Silas. Will he embrace his destiny and discover the truth about his father's disappearance?
Recently I received Lych Way by Ari Berk to review for Fresh Fiction. It is the third book in The Undertaken Trilogy. I read four pages, closed the book, and immediately ordered the first two novels. I knew from four pages that this was a trilogy I wanted to read every single word of. I'm so glad I did. DEATH WATCH captures the Gothic atmosphere of grief and fear through Silas's quest to not only find his missing father but to finally figure out why he's always been different. His isolation, partly of his own choosing and partly because of his role as Undertaker, further pushes him to evaluate his place in the world. The eerie blending of life and death, and where one begins and ends, is thought provoking without being angst-ridden or scary.
There is a haunting quality to Berk's prose that spins a dreamlike web, snaring the reader in the silky threads. You simply cannot put this book down even as you vibrate with dread at the horror approaching towards the climax. The ghostly folklore and mythology winding through the pages is equally fascinating, creating a richly detailed world of ancient beliefs.
The chilling atmosphere, haunting prose, and gripping plot will have you staying up late into the night to finish DEATH WATCH, but be prepared to sleep with the lights on!
They say the dead should rest in peace. Not all the dead
agree.
One night, Silas Umber's father Amos doesn't come home from
work. Devastated, Silas learns that his father was no mere
mortician but an Undertaker, charged with bringing The Peace
to the dead trapped in the Shadowlands, the states of limbo
binding spirits to earth. With Amos gone, Silas and his
mother have no choice but to return to Lichport, the
crumbling seaside town where Silas was born, and move in
with Amos's brother, Charles.
Even as Silas eagerly explores his father's town and its
many abandoned streets and overgrown cemeteries, he grows
increasingly wary of his uncle. There is something not quite
right going on in Charles Umber's ornate, museum-like house-
-something, Silas is sure, that is connected to his father's
disappearance. When Silas's search leads him to his father's
old office, he comes across a powerful artifact: the Death
Watch, a four hundred year old Hadean clock that allows the
owner to see the dead.
Death Watch in hand, Silas begins to unearth Lichport's
secret history--and discovers that he has taken on his
father's mantle as Lichport's Undertaker. Now, Silas must
embark on a dangerous path into the Shadowlands to embrace
his destiny and discover the truth about his father--no
matter the cost.
Critically acclaimed folklorist Ari Berk explores the worlds
of the living and the dead, and the relationships between
parents and children in a novel steeped in lore, mystery and
magic.
No excerpt available.
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