The Tale of the Black Casket - James W. Allen

The author James W. Allen based this story off of an Edgar Allen Poe short story. the story itself was very choppy and repetitive. However, this book needs a ton of editing. I found grammar errors through out the entire 39 pages of text. This made the story very hard to follow because I wasn't sure how to read some of the meanings behind certain statements.

The story consists of two business partners who have been best friends mainly their whole life. Stan Well and David Fine own a company together in some type of plant or warehouse, it really was never mentioned, the author only said work and office. David is in trouble with some town mobsters and needs money to pay them off, Stan refuses to let him have the money from the company to pay his bad debt. In return for the refusal, David kills Stan and buries him not far from te office. The story also repeats itself through out all the dialog and just situations which is too predicable. It seemed as though he was trying to make the eerie talk into a flirty romance novel at certain points in the story. David tries to forget about what he had done and move on but he starts getting strange phone calls at certain times of the day, following an old story he and his partner used to tell at Halloween time as a joke. Again, too predictable that David will answer the phone every time, all the while only forgetting the calls are going to come at the time they are received.

The author also is not consistent with the story line through out the book with people's names and personalities. He calls David - David through the whole first half of the book, then changes it to Dave and then continues on with both which makes it seem very informal. It seems like it is based in the 40's or 50's in the beginning then all the sudden David has a keyless entry for his vehicle and a cell phone. It is confusing to follow at points because of the grammar errors and other informal context.

Overall, if these errors were fixed, it would be a good spooky story, or eerie tale. If some other information were added such as a little more information on their company and family when those parts come into the storyline, it would be much easier to understand what exactly was going on. I would tell this story to teens at a Halloween party or such an event.

Disclosure of Material: I received a complimentary copy of The Tale of the Black Casket as a member of the Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team. I was given the book solely for my honest opinion(s), and review.