Book – The Death of Israel Leventhal
Author – Boom Baumgartner
Star rating - ★★☆☆☆
Cover – Intriguing
POV – 3rd person, dual POV
Would I read it again – No
Genre – LGBT, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **


I was really intrigued by the blurb for this, which was what made me want to read it, but I have to admit I'm disappointed. Basically, everything in the blurb is a misrepresentation of what the book is about. First off, George is not his best friend. They start the book as barely friendly colleagues who tolerate each other. And Israel doesn't change the way he sees George, because there is no hint of any “feelings” or relationship for 90% of the book and, when it does appear, it's apparently always been there and neither of them have said it. So, I pretty much felt that the blurb set me up for a book I didn't get to read.

I didn't really blend with the author's writing style. There were times when the tense changed, when the story felt disconnected from the characters, as if someone was relaying things that had happened but that nothing to do with them. There were copious editing issues, such as missing words and misspellings. And each chapter began with a memory/info dump that disconnected me from the previous chapter and what was happening.

For me, the dual POV felt a little disorientating, as did the timeline. I felt that the first half of Chapter 1 should have been a Prologue, setting up the events that were to follow, which would have made the one month time gap between those events and those of the second half make much more sense. Because they were simply separated by a scene break, it meant that we had Israel thinking about how he would have to go underground and keep George alive, after he'd been shot and lost a lot of blood, to suddenly one month later, with no mention of George and Israel having successfully hidden out for a whole month. It felt like that entire month was inconsequential to the story and was disorientating.

I didn't get the main point of the plot. It started with this guy hiring the “gravediggers” – an unexplained term that I had to figure out myself meant “someone who speaks to the dead after killing them” – to clean up a mess he made. He suspected three people of providing his wife with blackmail material, so instead of doing the logical thing of questioning or interrogating them, to find out all he could, he kills all three suspects and has the gravediggers interrogate their “ghosts” in the void – the place where all ghosts go. Another term that wasn't exactly explained until halfway through, when it had already been used a half dozen times. The entire plot is based on this illogical move by this client and it makes zero sense to me. It seriously over complicates something that is very simple. I might have bought it if the people had died in an accident or through natural causes, but by killing them and having Israel and George interrogate them after their deaths, it wastes a whole lot of time which allows someone to target the boys as they “interrogate” the dead people.

I had an issue with the chapter placements, too. The two MC's spend 90% of the book separated, so there is no relationship to speak of until well into the 90% mark, where the only thing they share is the most chaste kiss I've ever read. Even then, there is no chemistry between them during the whole book, other than a slight sense of bromance that in no way resembled a relationship or a potential relationship.

The author attempted to show their chemistry and their history together by providing “non-chapters”. I call them this because they are out of sequence with the actual chapters of the story. They have their own headings, that are not “Chapter whatever” and are all flashbacks to a time that is apparently pivotal to the plot – aka, they reveal something of the characters, their relationship or a method of communication that is important later – yet they are all pages and pages of information that don't really add anything. Still, they were the only time that the main characters actually showed off who they were. They were the only instances of characterisation that made me feel anything for the characters or even showed me who they were and it was a little too late to matter.

I didn't really like the main characters – George and Israel – for most of the book. They were glorified killers and interrogators, without actually admitting it or having it spelled out. The story focused more on the fact that they could speak to the dead than the admission Israel made that they often killed people before interrogating them, which – as I said earlier – feels entirely unnecessary.

Overall, I just didn't find the book engaging or intriguing. I didn't feel the chemistry or the excitement or danger of the plot. It just wasn't for me.

Fascinating characters, interesting story.

I enjoyed this book. Author Boom Baumgartner created an interesting world where some people can talk to the previous living. There is great character development and some good action. I thought that the way the protagonists do their thing is very creative and Boom uses backstory to tell us more about them. However the book is short at 33,000 words and I would have been willing to read a novel-length work.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

A cute story of asexual (and possibly aromantic) Israel, who is a freelance gravedigger hired to talk to the recently dead, but the secrets he digs up, others will kill to bury. Israel slowly realises that George Rose, a fellow gravedigger who’s had his back all these years, has come to mean more to Israel than just a close colleague. A convoluted plot with some engaging secondary characters and an interesting take on two romance tropes: friends to lovers and workplace romance.