Saturday, October 18, 2025

Review: That the Dead May Rest by Karen A. Wyle


 

Genre: Paranormal Fantasy

Description:

“After a life of peril and fear, Millie has reached the peace, beauty, and security of the afterlife. But one day, when she is performing her glad duty of welcoming a new spirit, that spirit recoils from her in horror — because her body had become a zombie, and had brutally killed him.

As more spirits make the same terrible discovery, they ask themselves, and each other: is this somehow my fault? When will it end? And finally: what can we do? Is there something we can do to stop this?

And are there people among the living who can help them to do it?”

Author:

“Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana. She now considers herself a Hoosier. She is an appellate attorney, photographer, and mother of two.

Wyle's thoughtful and compassionate fiction includes SF, historical romance, and fantasy. She has also collaborated with several wonderful illustrators to produce picture books. Relying on her legal background, she has written one nonfiction resource, explaining American law to authors, law students, and anyone else interested in better understanding the legal landscape. Wyle's voice is the product of a lifetime spent reading both literary and genre fiction. Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family, communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence of unfinished business.”

Appraisal:

I think calling this book different and unique would be fair. It takes some things that are mysteries and imagines what the answers might be. Things like what happens after we leave this life. It imagines strange happenings and how to figure out why they are happening and how to deal with them. How all of this relates to the rest, what the ultimate answers are, and how it all fits together isn’t at all like anything I’ve read before. And, of course how it was all going to work out, especially for Millie, the main character, was something that mattered to me as the reader and kept me engrossed to the last page.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an ARC (advanced reviewer copy), so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

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