The Graveyard Shift

Lewis (Mockingbird: Strike Out) delivers a tepid serial killer whodunit steeped in slasher-film lore. On an unseasonably cold October night in Melbourne, radio host Tinsel Monroe arrives at the studio for her late-night show, a mix of movie trivia and tracks from classic horror movie soundtracks. On this particular night, she’s offering two tickets to the premiere of a new horror film to the first caller who can properly answer a deep-cut trivia question. Melbourne local Mera Brant is thrilled when her call gets through, but her excitement quickly turns to horror as she’s murdered while on the air. Tinsel mistakes it for a prank, but police confirm that Mera has, in fact, been killed, so Tinsel and her true crime blogger sister, Pandora, team up to investigate. As the body count rises, the slashing and beheading is balanced by a budding romance between Tinsel and the handsome cop assigned to the case, and by forays into Pandora’s struggles to balance motherhood with her true crime obsession. Unfortunately, the mystery is easy to solve, and Lewis’s characters are paper-thin. Horror fans may get a kick out of the abundant soundtrack-focused trivia, but anyone looking for real scares or surprises should look elsewhere. Agent: Ed Wilson, Johnson & Alcock. (Sept.)