It'd have to be when Derek and his family went on the train and the incident happened, "killing" his brother and father [that was most compelling]. It wasn't disappointing because it kept me interested. Makes me wonder if the afterlife is a two way street? Hmmm. AHS/MP

A very good book. Why anyone would not read it is beyond me. (Dude you gotta read this.) [It was compelling when] the boy (Derek Stone) finds out that goast are talking over bodies. I was disappointed because of where it stopped for the next book. Try and make the ending more appealing so people will want to go out and buy then read the next ones over and over again. AHS/JF

Reviewed by Angie Fisher for TeensReadToo.com

Fourteen-year-old Derek Stone isn't a daydreamer. He prefers reality, the concrete stuff. So when he and his dad and brother are aboard a train that crashes into a deep, deadly ravine, Derek understands he is the sole survivor.

Or is he?

Derek's world is literally turned upside down after the wreck. Everything he thought he knew to be true begins to unravel, and he is unraveling with it.

When he finds an old newspaper article about a train crash that happened in the exact same place seventy years ago, he's forced to delve deeper into the old Louisiana legends he'd never imagined himself believing.

Dead people don't come back, but they have, and they are after him. He doesn't have time to wrap his head around it; he must act before it's too late.

CITY OF THE DEAD is a quick read full of action and information that the reader will want to get a handle on before jumping into the following books in THE HAUNTING OF DEREK STONE series. Tony Abbott leaves many questions unanswered about the dead, the living, and Derek himself, so it will be easy to put this first book down and dive headfirst into BAYOU DOGS, the next book, to re-join Derek's adventure. ( )