The Loveliest Dead is about a family that moves into a new house the wife inherited from her estranged father and, of course, it’s haunted. The family consists of a husband and wife, David and Jenna; Jenna’s mother, Martha; and a son around eleven years old, Miles. Miles had a younger brother, but he died inexplicably when he was a toddler. The book begins with his death. The next chapter starts with the family as they’ve just moved into the new house. Progressively the family members start seeing ghosts of boys and a “fat man”. As things get worse, Jenna tries to find help. The family is poor, David can’t find work in their new town, and they can’t afford to go anywhere else, even if everybody agreed to leave, which they don’t. Meanwhile, as things get worse in the house, there is a psychic in a nearby town who is having powerful visions about the family and the house and knows that the family, especially Miles, are in terrible danger. She tries to warn them, but of course, that is harder than it should be, given the circumstances. The psychic’s visions become more frequent and more disturbing, as things get worse for the family inside the home. Everything eventually comes to a head, and it’s a race against time for the psychic to be able to help the family avoid disaster before it’s too late.

The Loveliest Dead did well in keeping my interest and moved along at a fast pace, but I didn’t feel very attached to the characters. I completely disliked David, he seemed to be a controlling jackass. I had little respect for Jenna for being as intimidated and cowed by David, while knowing that her son was in danger. She eventually got some backbone, but she let things go way too far, in my opinion, before she stood up for herself. I did like Miles and, I liked, but also felt sorry for Jenna’s mother since her fears were discarded so easily. The poor woman thought she was going crazy and her daughter just left her believing that for a long time even though she had begun seeing things as well. I was also disappointed that the book didn’t scare me.

The Loveliest Dead had a lot of the things involved in a horror story that usually scare me, like possession, evil entities, Ouija boards, etc. But I think I was so sidetracked on my dislike of David and disappointment with Jenna that the scary stuff just didn’t get to me. I spent most of the novel just hating David. Maybe it’s because he reminded me of my ex-husband, and someone else wouldn’t feel so strongly about him, I don’t know, but I just wanted somebody to tell him where he could go.

I wanted to like this book, but it felt kind of like a sorry repeat of The Shining by Stephen King (which I recommend highly: the book, not the movie). **spoiler alert** The other thing that really bothered me, was that the family moves in with Jenna’s friend, after the shit has hit the fan and all is well, but they couldn’t move in with her when everything was so bad? I don’t get that. I especially don’t understand why Jenna wouldn’t at least as her friend to take care of Miles after getting the first warning from the medium and then the second warning from the psychic. I guess it wouldn’t be much of a horror story though if people acted rationally. Maybe I’ve read too many of these books and I’m just jaded. I didn’t hate it, it kept my interest, but I can’t really say it was worth the read either. There are better horror books out there. ( )

While I wouldn't really classify The Loveliest Dead as a light version of Ray Garton's writing, comparatively it would qualify as less hardcore than some of his other books like Live Girls and Night Life. And I'm referring to the material here, not his writing or style. The writing and character development is definitely Garton: strong, very good and enjoyable.

While trying to deal with the loss of their son, the Keller family moves to a new home. An old dilapidated house that has seen better days but that provides the Kellers with hope of rebuilding and starting new. However, they soon start seeing and experiencing things that haunt their lives even more.

To that degree, the story is a haunted house novel but the grief, dread and suffering felt by the Keller family is very real. That is what pulls the novel into being something memorable. That and being scary throughout. Overall, I will have to admit to liking some of his other books better than this one but there's nothing wrong with The Loveliest Dead. It is a solidly entertaining novel and one I would recommend. I would simply recommend other Garton books before this one. ( )