Relic of Death by David Bernstein : Review

When two mob enforcers take care of a hit in the suburban countryside, they stumble onto a seemingly abandoned house. While searching the place, they find a simple leather briefcase full of what they think are priceless diamonds.

But things are never as they appear…

For the briefcase is a bringer of death. This ancient evil, once contained for centuries, is now unleashed. Those who come in contact with it will be granted their greatest desires at the even greater cost of their lives.

While searching for help after their SUV breaks down while returning from a job, a pair of hitmen stumble across an isolated house in the middle of the woods. When they discover a mysterious briefcase full of diamonds the two men soon find themselves at odds over it as panic and paranoia set in, because this briefcase isn’t just a briefcase, blood and death follow whoever holds it. From a homeless junkie to a down on her luck woman the briefcase moves from person to person in an almost improbably chain of events.

Relic of Death by David Bernstein was a quick and enjoyable read, and while I typically find novella’s just a tad too short to truly enjoy, I found myself perfectly satisfied at the close of this story. The only complaint I had about the novella was that because it was more like a series of linked short stories, you never got to know any one character, and each one came across as an almost generic placeholder. Other than that, while the concept itself was really interesting, I couldn’t get over how completely weird I found it to be.

That being said I really liked it, the strangeness of the story more than made up for the cardboard cutout characters, and the novella length of it. I would suggest this book to anyone who is a fan of horror or crime fiction, or just wants to experience and almost surreal story. Its a quick read and I can honestly say that I enjoyed it enough to start reading it again just a few hours after I finished it!

Relic of Death is set to be published June 24th 2014 by DarkFuse.

I received a copy of this publication for free in exchange for an honest review.