Beyond the Cemetery Gate

Very good read. Has you gripped from the first chapter. Some parts of it were predictable, but the anticipation of how everything worked out was great. I read this in one sitting! Absolutely amazing! 5 stars!

Valerie Biel has excelled herself in this brilliant story. The graphics on the front cover are just so appropriate and fitting. This tells the story of 16 year old Chloe who lives with her dad Dean who is the cemetery caretaker and they live on site. Chloe wakes in the middle of the night after hearing a wailing/howling noise. She realises Dean is not in the house so goes to investigate and finds Dean slumped unresponsive against a headstone with a hyperdermic syringe hanging out of his arm. By the time the emergency services arrive and take Dean to hospital, he is pronounced dead on arrival. As Chloe's mum 'died' when she was very young, the only family she has is her auntie Maggie, Dean's sister but she is unreachable due to being a news reporter and is on an assignment without her phone. When a social worker arrives and mentions Chloe going into temporary foster care until Maggie can get back Chloe is horrified and calls her best friend, Emma Phillips instead and her parents agree to take Chloe until Maggie can get there. Mr and Mrs Phillips and Emma take Chloe back to their house but Chloe hears them talking and the Phillips' along with the police and most of their small town in Wisconsin believe that it was just a normal drug overdose but Chloe is adamant her dad didn't do drugs and that foul play is involved and Dean was murdered. She sees the looks on the faces of Mr and Mrs Phillips faces every time she says this as if she is just a delusional child in denial. Even Emma is also starting to believe everyone else but Chloe so Chloe devises a plan and starts putting her plans in motion. She leaves the Phillips' house and leaves Emma a message that auntie Maggie has arrived to help look after her. Truth be told Chloe has decided in order to attempt to find out what actually happened to her dad that she needs to be living at her house to be nearer the scene and if, whoever murdered her dad has a reason to return. At every opportunity Chloe airs her theory to anyone that listens that no way was Dean a drug addict so she starts her own unofficial investigation. Chief Barnett tells her she needs to stop digging and to be careful but Chloe continues to find discrepancies in the police investigations. At school, Chloe has a chem lab partner, Jarvis who rarely interacts with her and just works alongside her in chemistry. Following the loss of Dean, Jarvis starts to take notice of Chloe's behaviour and Jarvis turns out to be an unusual ally who starts to help Chloe and becomes very protective of Chloe and helping her at every opportunity as he just so happens to be exceptionally talented in hacking into confidential and sensitive information regarding all aspects surrounding Dean's death and Chloe is convinced she is being watched and followed. Chloe has to also keep up the facade that Maggie is looking after her but discovers Dean's bank account has been emptied out and the emergency stash tin is empty too but she still needs to eat without drawing unnecessary attention from adults around her so she sees a staff wanted sign for a waitress at Molly Bell's diner. After a disastrous first shift and Chloe thinking she's blown it, Molly tells her she has the job and to return the following evening. A new customer, Candi starts to come to eat at Molly's every evening and ensuring that she interacts with Chloe on her visits. Jarvis also makes sure he is at the diner every evening by closing time so that he can walk Chloe home and make sure she's safe as they are unravelling more and more inconsistencies with Dean's fatal 'drug overdose'. Chloe actually keeps the facade up around all the adults until one evening while she's working there is a news broadcast showing on the diner television being presented by auntie Maggie - live in Istanbul as a bomb explodes! Chloe literally runs from the diner distraught and convinced that her only other family member is also dead. Chloe also has to move out of her home - with nowhere to go as a new caretaker has been given the job and the house comes with it. After being honest about everything with Molly, she also turns out to be an unexpected ally who genuinely cares for Chloe and helps Chloe and Jarvis pack up hers and Dean's belongings but Molly and Jarvis find things that are enough to turn her already devastating life upside down. Has Chloe's life been a lie? How could Dean have lied and kept so much from her? Has her imaginary friend/guardian angel Leb only been a figment of her imagination or is there more to it? Definitely a can't put it down thriller that Valerie Biel has covered so many aspects of life and how not everything is as it seems from the outside looking in. Highly recommended and definitely looking forward to reading more of this amazing author's work!