Alive in Necropolis may be a ghost story, but the dead stay on the periphery, waiting for Mike to understand that they are there and that he can help them. Most of the book is spent on the struggles of the living, and they aren't pretty. Mike suffers injury after injury, both physical and psychic. Jude can't get out of his own way. Mrs. Featherstone develops dangerous habits. Mike's partner Nick Toronto melts down after an incident with a woman.
The book is well-written, and Dorst's depiction of small-town policing is detailed and rings with authenticity. I still found the novel less than satisfying, however. Mike spends most of the book somewhat incapacitated by his injuries and lack of sleep, which gets old. When the resolutions to the many story threads come, they are told from a distance, not from the characters' points of view, which is distinctly little payoff for 400 pages of strife. The ghosts play too small a part for a ghost story; the mechanics of their world remained largely unexplored and they could almost have been left out completely.
If you're interested in a police procedural and don't mind a supernatural sideline, then perhaps Alive in Necropolis is the book for you. If you're looking for a good ghost story, you'd best look for your haunting elsewhere.
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