Gr. 6-9. Five unrelated horror stories are surrounded by episodes in the odd career of the narrator, known as Digger because he digs graves. Ostensibly told to Digger by various individuals he has encountered on the job, the tales are all of the gruesome (but not sensational) variety, populated with an assortment of vampires, mummies, and cannibals. Digger's expansive comments provide a glimmer of humor as well as atmosphere, the latter manifesting itself largely in the final chapters, in which Digger's own life takes a particularly ghastly turn. With the possible exception of the gruesome finales, there's little that horror buffs will find truly unexpected in the stories, but Murphy has a knack for evocative descriptions, which will probably be enough to keep readers happy.

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