Celebrated author and screenwriter Harry Shannon wrote the original screenplay for the recently released direct-to-DVD film titled DEAD AND GONE. The film/DVD was reviewed on Fear Zone last month by no less a personage than Ye Olde Editor, Greg Lamberson, himself. I viewed the DVD and read Greg's review of the film, and (luckily for me and any prospective future descendants of mine) I agree with Greg's analysis of the film.

Harry Shannon, not surprisingly, also wrote a tie-in novelization of his film, which has just been released by Shane Ryan Staley's Delirium Books as a reasonably priced trade paperback edition and as the featured selection for August in Delirium's softcover Horror Book Club. I think that it is a valid question to ask whether, for those who have already viewed the film version, it is worthwhile to purchase and read Harry Shannon's novel. After reading it, I would answer the question with an unequivocal "yes."

The novel Dead and Gone is a far richer and more viscerally frightening experience than the film version. Harry Shannon is a gifted author and his novel adds depth to the characters not found in the film. This really should come as no surprise, in that this is generally true of most comparisons between a film and novel of the same story. The limitations, both financial and in time duration inherent within a film, almost guarantee that the novel will be better able to develop the nuances of characterization that make for memorable and fully developed characters. Similarly, a novel also gives the time and space to introduce and develop secondary (and tertiary) characters and plot lines for which there are neither such time or "space" available within a film.

In the novel Dead and Gone , this added attention can be easily observed in the additional time that is rewardingly spent upon such supporting characters as the Rose brothers, Moss and Booger, Sheriff Pete Johnson, and the delightfully nasty and totally crazy Billy Bob Mercer. As might be expected (or at least hoped for), author Shannon also comes through with added depth to the novel's main characters and to the main plot line as well.

Dead and Gone revolves around Jack Wade, young, handsome, sporting a British accent and a nice set of abs, who married the older, middle aged film producer/actress Frankie Pierce. Jack had been Frankie's studly "boy-toy" whom she had paraded around on her arm as if he were another pretty accoutrement, like another piece of jewelry or a Cartier watch. She had promised him everything if he married her, success, stardom, and wealth. Unfortunately, just after they legally tied the knot, Frankie decided to go in for some quick plastic surgery so as to keep up with her new young husband, and had an unfortunate bad reaction to the anesthesia, and had gone into a coma from which she never awakened. The costs of medical care, a private nurse and the feeding tubes and equipment for keeping Frankie alive and breathing quickly erased all of Frankie's savings. As we meet poor Jack, he is at his wits end and has been forced to move himself and his comatose wife into an old rickety shack equipped with none of the modern conveniences (just an exterior cold-water-shower outhouse) in the wilds of back country Nevada. Jack comes here because he "has no place else left to go," and claims to have won title to the old shack and surrounding land in a poker game. The author makes certain to introduce Jack as a likable and sympathetic character.

Of course, this particular piece of land and shack that Jack has just moved to has an ... interesting history, as related by the author in a nicely atmospheric Preface. See, back forty years ago the redwood shack had been the abode of Wayne Lee Garrett along with his wife and young children. Rumor had it that this particular cabin had been built right on top of (what else) an old Indian burial ground, but that didn't bother 'ol Wayne Lee none. However, he did start hearing strange voices that seemed to agree with his growing suspicions that his wife had been unfaithful.

Well, one night, while listening to a then current Country Western hit song called, "Forty Years of Pain," he brutally murdered his entire family and then shot himself dead. The place had been basically vacant and unoccupied from then until Jack's arrival with Frankie forty years later. By now the place had a rather bad reputation locally, with the less than eight hundred residents of Dry Wells, NV shivering with fear and distaste when referring to the old place. In fact, the favorite local phrase referring to the property, one known and repeated by virtually everyone is, "You only think you're alone."

Shortly after Jack has settled himself and his wife into the rustic and isolated mountaintop premises, he is paid a welcome visit by local law enforcement in the person of Constable Kate Eidson. Kate is a young, pretty and single red-haired local who has come back from a stint in our Armed Services serving in Iraq, where she had seen and been a part of traumatic killings. Kate is attracted to Jack like a moth to a flamethrower, and more visits lead to her trying to fight an intense physical attraction to the amiable Jack.

Shannon fills the novel with colorful secondary characters and gives the plot enough twists and turns to keep any reader riveted. Is Jack what he seems, or is there something perhaps "different" about him? Are the strange voices and then sights Jack witnesses something created out of a possibly diseased mind, or could they be real? Why does he begin humming the tune "Forty Years of Pain" that somehow keeps running through his brain? Will Frankie, Jack, or even Kate survive the possibly haunted property? The story picks up speed throughout the novel's second half and doesn't stop to catch its breath or allow the reader to catch theirs.

Sure, the film DEAD AND GONE is entertaining and makes for enjoyable viewing, but the novel is even better and makes for a truly superior read. Dead and Gone is a great read of a novel by a talented author at the very top of his form, and is highly recommended.