cover image The Handyman

The Handyman

Bentley Little. Cemetery Dance, $25 trade hardcover (336p) ISBN 978-1-58767-616-1

Little (The Collection) wraps a fascinating supernatural mystery in a suffocating cocoon of horror. Daniel Martin is a typical Southern California kid in the 1980s, until his parents decide to purchase a vacation home in rural Arizona. Their new house will be constructed from a prefab kit—and the strange handyman across the street offers to build it for a low price. Little do Daniel and his innocent family realize that everyone who comes into contact with weird and evil Frank Watkins meets malevolence sooner or later. After Frank moves away, the corpse of a child is found in the basement of his old home. Shortly thereafter, Daniel’s brother dies gruesomely. And that’s just the beginning. As the story unfolds, readers see that the evil Frank causes has popped up across the country and over decades. With each taut chapter, Little skillfully reels in the reader, climaxing in an oddly believable paranormal finale. Little’s horrifying tale will entice even readers who are not fans of the genre, and stay with them for a long time to come. (Nov.)