“Stephen King has Castle Rock. Josh Malerman has Goblin. E. Reyes has Devil’s Hill. Now C. J. Daley welcomes you to Cemetery.”
Set in a small town as creepy as its name, Welcome to Cemetery is a mysterious detective crime thriller with deadly high stakes. It’s got a string of bloodless bodies, an unlikely yet strong buddy cop dynamic, and tons of bloody action that will keep you glued to the page, if you can just turn off your critical brain and suspend your disbelief long enough.
After loving C.J. Daley’s supernatural horror novelette BestGhost (to which we get some fun little nods here), I was beyond excited to see his deliciously dark storytelling shine in a full-length novel. And honestly, the first few chapters lived up to my expectations and had me hooked; the scene is set, the stakes are raised, and the rapidly increasing air of mystery had me quite intrigued to figure out what the heck was really going on. Serial killers? Supernatural horrors? Something altogether more disturbing? Only one way to find out.
Welcome to Cemetery truly nails that ‘just one more chapter’ vibe, and I really appreciated how Daley was able to build and keep up the tension the entire way through. However, I have to admit that at some point I found myself turning the pages more out of sheer disbelief at all the unhinged actions and wildly ridiculous revelations rather than a true sense of investment in the plot and characters.
See, while I found it a refreshing choice to follow this story through the eyes of a young, queer female detective and her jaded Mexican senior officer as a partner, I personally never really connected to them. There are hints at deeper emotional backstories and lots of psychological depth for both of them, but because the pacing is so fast, the exploration of their harrowing personal journeys and the development of their complex dynamic just doesn’t get the time and attention it deserves.
There were a few moments in Welcome to Cemetery where we got to see the emotionally vulnerable ‘Abby’ instead of the tough, single-minded ‘Williams’ that I really enjoyed, and I while I was never expecting the wholesome and sweetly innocent queer romance to become my favourite aspect of this bloody crime thriller, I welcomed it with open arms. But then, the abrupt development and endpoint of their romance arc was not what I was expecting, which only added to my frustration during the rushed ending.
Ultimately, there’s no denying that Welcome to Cemetery succeeds in being an incredibly smooth, easy, and thrilling page-turner, but I was personally hoping to love it a lot more than I did. If you are intrigued by the premise and find yourself craving a popcorn read of a mystery crime thriller that you can easily devour in one or two days, then I would give this wild roller coaster a shot.
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Welcome to Cemetery is scheduled for release on March 4th, 2025.
