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Review: Tales From The Graveyard pt2 – Dirt & Sam

by Susan Shultz

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a chance to read the full collection of these stories in exchange for an honest review.
Published: December 2014 and April 2015.

The review for the first two stories in this series can be found HERE.

Dirt

Title: Dirt
Author: Susan Shultz 
Publisher: Full Fathom Five
Book: #3 of Tales from the Graveyard
Genre: Horror/thriller/paranormal
Found: Netgalley
Rating: 2 Voodoos

Lila is a small-town news reporter with lofty ambitions. She’s covering the story of Ainsley, the infamous local “man-eating” serial killer.
When Lila finds Ainsley’s old journal at the investigation site, she digs under the story’s surface and uncovers Ainsley’s darkest secrets. Lila becomes obsessed with telling the “real” story of the mysterious murderess on the hill—a woman with a tragic, hidden past.
Lila’s boyfriend and her editor try and stop her from getting too deeply involved, but it may be too late.
Will she be able to resurface once the story breaks? Or will she become another victim of Ainsely’s seductive side?
And can she resist the even more compelling shadow of the Blacksmith growing evermore in the distance?
Can anyone?
Dirt is the third installment in Susan Shultz’s artfully creepy Tales From the Graveyard series, following The Blacksmith and Jessie.

-Goodreads

I was disappointed with this one. It added a new character and there was no history we didn’t already know (except for about the new character). We learn nothing more about The Blacksmith or where he came from.

This is about a journalist with a dark past. She is seduced by the story of Ainsely and it reveals things about herself that she didn’t realise. While the story is interesting and actually possibly darker than the others, it wasn’t what I was hoping we’d get.

Sam

Title: Sam
Author: Susan Shultz 
Publisher: Full Fathom Five
Book: #4 of Tales from the Graveyard
Genre: Horror/thriller/paranormal
Found: Netgalley
Rating:  Voodoos

It’s been five long years since the horrific murders that took place in the house on the hill, and the little town Ainsley Price once lived in seems to be moving on.
All except Sam—sweet, loving Sam.
With his pregnant wife, Claudia, by his side, Sam decides to live in the house that was once Ainsley’s. He hides the gravestones that stand like solemn reminders in their yard and tells his wife that everything is all right.
But Ainsley knows that isn’t true.
Ainsley knows his secrets.
And what he thinks is dead will rise again.

Sam is the fourth and final installment in Susan Shultz’s dark series, Tales From the Graveyard. Haven’t read the series? Start with The Blacksmith.

-Goodreads

I still don’t know what was happening and I’ve finished them all. This one seemed really bitty. I’m not sure there was much of a point to it except to be an epilogue. It didn’t feel particularly wrapped up either. I feel it was a poor end to the series.

SERIES REVIEW:

This series started out really fascinating. It’s in four parts and the first is told from the point of view of a literal man-eater and the influences in her life – including the haunted graves in her garden. Though, while we get Jessie explained the ‘other’ graves that only the Blacksmith knows about are never explained, nor is the blacksmith himself which was what I was most looking forward to. The first two are very bloody, the second two not so much. I also found it confusing because they were all told by everyone in some way and I found it hard to work out what was actually going on. The fact that the story was divided into 4 novellas gave it a disjointed feel too. I’m not sure what the point of the story was and while I think the ending was meant to be spooky it was more confusing than anything else.

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