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Inside the Cover Book Review Review by Heather Hunt
The Dead Whisper On By T.L. Hines Bethany House, 2007 ISBN 0-7642-0205-7 T.L. Hines' sophomore effort The Dead Whisper On is to his stellar debut novel Waking Lazarus what The Empire Strikes Back is to Star Wars: A New Hope, i.e., a deeper, more complex story that encompasses the larger community and not only one individual's quest. Though the story is told almost exclusively from the viewpoint of "Canada Mac," Candace MacHugh, her story is the tale of the whole community of Butte, Montana, which in turn represents any town anywhere. In telling Canada's story, Hines comments on us all, as we cling to the past, hear what we want to hear, leave ourselves open to evil yet attractive influences, and refuse to take responsibility for the present. At story's start, Canada is a garbage collector, a former member of the blast crew in Butte's now defunct copper mines, and she lives in a rinky-dink trailer, decorated with teetering towers of moldy magazines and newspapers that threaten to topple over and bury her. But since the whole setup was left to her by her beloved and idolized father, dead these 11 years, her life is in a holding pattern waiting for what she doesn't know. In such a state, she is more than susceptible to the supernatural when she begins seeing shadows that undulate and speak with her father's voice. Sure enough, without much trouble, her disembodied father convinces her to join his underground worldwide movement of do-gooder ghosts and spooks, who travel to disaster sites for warnings and rescues. The catch is that first she needs to "die." Then she needs to leave Butte behind. Canada goes along with faking her death and participates in a few assignments with this questionable organization in which none of the humans use their real names and all of them take their orders from these shadows, these ghosts of lost loved ones. She travels to New Orleans and Seattle, always farther and farther from Butte and from her living mother with whom she halfheartedly tried to reconcile before leaving to join her dead father. But when Canada begins to feel homesick, her suspicions rise about the reality of what she's doing. And when she is finally captured by a mysterious supernatural agent named Keros, who has been ruthlessly pursuing her, her world is rocked again by his unexpected message. Meanwhile back in Butte, forest fires surround the city while within the city an alarming ailment that causes spontaneous combustion of the patient runs rampant. Butte is in quarantine by the time Canada gets back and only she can save the town. But she's dead, isn't she? The Dead Whisper On is a supernatural thriller full of desperate escapes, looming evil, and long, dark nights of the soul. Hines does a wonderful job depicting the susceptibility of the human psyche in its overwhelming need to believe what it wants to be true and the devastating yet refreshing freedom that facing the truth can bring to those who are brave enough to seek it.
Heather Hunt is a business editor in Connecticut. For fun she reads, writes, tries to figure out "Lost," laughs at the antics in "The (American) Office," and enjoys tennis and cycling. Her "Joan of Arcadia" spec script was a Finalist at Writesafe.com. Check out her blog at www.viewfromstonewater.blogspot.com.
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