WHEN MICHAEL CALLS is the high-end-journeyman work of a high-end-journeyman author, and holds up surprisingly well more than half a century later, thanks to unfussy prose, sturdy plotting, standout pacing and the author's strong instinct for a convincing twist. Once the sepulchral trappings of the mystery, aided in no small part by the smartly rendered small-town-Ozarks setting, are stripped away, WHEN MICHAEL CALLS becomes a lean, tense serial-killer thriller with plenty of surprises still in store. The crime part is slightly dominant in this tale of what seems to be a long-dead boy making spooky phone calls to those who feels wronged him and his beloved late mother. WHEM MICHAEL CALLS, a 1967 novel, is as sturdy and unsplashy as its author, a prolific author of contemporary Southern gothic stories that straddle the line between horror, paranormal and crime fiction. It felt like the author was done telling the story and just ended it, and tied a bow on it with the same cliche ending. Overall, for what it is, and how short it was, I wasn’t mad I read it, but it wasn’t anything great.

The book does try to throw some curve balls at you to take you off the path, but not enough to convince you to change your mind. I was a bit disappointed by this, because I was very much looking forward to a supernatural book, but was given what felt like a bait and switch. As someone else pointed out, the book starts off as a supernatural type book, and then changes gears to a thriller. When the action and or suspense is going on, this book is a real page turner (even if you figure it out early). A lot of unnecessary details or conversations, or descriptions of things, and then the last two pages of the chapter would start to pick and just when you are hooked, the chapter ends and it’s back to the same formula. You would start a chapter, and it would be long and drawn out. The book itself seemed to have a pattern, and imo an annoying one at that. A short read, but I was able to figure it out The Whodunit very quickly and the book itself reveals whodunit if you will well before the book is over. A lot of 5 star reviews on this one, so I figured I would give it a go.

When Michael Calls by John Farris