Walking with the Dead is a page-turning thriller for readers who like their stories to unfold at lightning speed, unencumbered by character development.

Both Alex and his dad have financial troubles. Alex is being shaken down weekly by the school bully, while his widowed father is struggling with the family-run Oddities Museum. Just before Halloween, Dad comes home with an ancient Greek corpse as an exhibit, and the fun begins.

As it turns out our corpse, Costas, was buried without the requisite gold coin allowing him safe passage into the Underworld through the River Styx. His soul is therefore doomed to wander for eternity. A helpful sort, Alex sets out to rectify this and talks his cousin, Freddie, into coming along. After many hurdles, the boys get Costas to the Underworld, only to have him judged and condemned to Tartarus, the Chamber of Darkness. Inflamed by this fresh injustice, Alex sets about rescuing poor Costas from Tartarus and then taking him back in time to undo the wrong that Costas had innocently wrought.

The boys come up against labyrinths, Medusa, minotaurs, oracles, and corrupt royalty. Toronto writer L.M. Falcone entertainingly offsets the ancient Greek references with bits of modern technology. Not only does our hero have access to burgers and fries in Hades, but he can make quick computer checks via his cellphone.

Spare on description, Falcone’s novel uses the immediacy of first person and short, quick-cutting scenes, betraying her roots as a writer of TV scripts for the popular Are You Afraid of the Dark? series. Certainly readers must be willing to suspend disbelief for the duration of Alex’s odyssey right on into the neatly resolved happy ending. Everyone in the Underworld and Ancient Greece speaks colloquial English, the boys always have the perfect implement in their pockets, and all wounds are instantly healed. Far from deterring many young readers, these qualities are precisely the ones that will draw them in.