Cemetery Club

Faherty's third-rate Stephen King horror novel-wannabe (after Ghosts of Coronado Bay) revisits old genre tropes without generating much suspense or terror. It's the present-day, and Todd Randolph has just returned home to Rocky Point, New York, after serving two decades in the Wood Hill Sanitarium for murder. His release coincides with the resurgence of blood-splattering violence in the small community, after a cemetery worker is possessed by a thing that forces its way down his throat, causing him to bludgeon his work partner to death. Randolph naturally becomes the prime suspect, leading to a revisiting of his past affiliation with three other friends in the Cemetery Club, which unleashed an evil force 20 years earlier after an ill-advised crypt exploration. All the clich%C3%A9s are present and accounted for, including the girl who got away (now conveniently available after a divorce). The killing scenes rapidly become repetitive as a new character is introduced, and then slaughtered or possessed shortly thereafter. Readers seeking characters to care about should look elsewhere. (Mar.)