WRAITH

This third volume of a supernatural series pits the saga’s heroes against an old enemy with new powers.

It’s been 14 years since David Turley, whose telekinesis can create the monstrous Garbageman, defeated the evil Hellann. Now, David and his wife, Julie, have settled into married life in Phoenix, Arizona, with their teenage son, Michael. Thanks to the chemical Neurogen that gave David and Julie special powers and immortality, Michael likewise possesses telekinesis—and the ability to see the dead. The boy’s best friend is a spirit named Francine, an African American teen who drowned. The Turleys’ idyllic life soon comes under fire when one of Hellann’s leftover minions starts possessing people and causing murderous havoc. David’s friend Joseph “Sarge” Finney loses his soul while battling this wraith. Bradley, a Hopi kachina (or spirit) who helped fight Hellann years ago, contacts Dr. Benjamin Donovan in nearby Carefree, Arizona. Donovan employs his Chronos device to remove “Lifetime” from terminally ill people who want to die. By using the Lifetime himself, Donovan has stopped aging and is 175 years old. After Bradley hides Sarge’s soul from the wraith in Flagstone, “the town of decay,” he asks Donovan to intervene. Alongside David’s powerful family, the doctor must save Sarge and protect him from Flagstone’s dangerous citizens. But with Dean at the helm, the rescue will prove a bumpy ride. As the wraith, normally a “bearded man with a smoky red-and-black form,” jumps from body to body, chaos ensues. This includes a knife-wielding shopper showing up at a mall and a dump truck driving against traffic on a highway. The author’s humanoid Tormentors boost the horror, with limbs “like spider legs except for the fingers and toes, which had claws.” Donovan’s presence adds fun, Ghostbusters-style technology to the mix, like his “Ocular Soul-Sensing Device.” In Flagstone, hellish surrealism appears in a forest filled with octopuses. Hellann’s much-threatened return draws Francine into a final battle, giving the ghost an important role. Despite the trilogy’s compact finale, Dean’s penchant for thematic expansion may lead to more “trashing time” ahead.

Little is recycled in this fresh, action-oriented installment of the Garbageman series.