I am relatively new to this whole “urban fantasy” thing. I’ll come right out and admit that the Jim Butcher novel I’ve owed for several years is still sitting unread on my shelf (as is the Sookie Stackhouse book – hey, there’s only so much time in a day. I’ll get around to it eventually.) and I haven’t read much, if any really, of Laurell K. Hamilton’s work, except for flipping through one of her novels, coming across the word “werepenis,” and giggling uncontrollably.

To say I know nothing about this genre (or sub genre, whatever you’d like to call it) is fairly accurate. The idea of fantasy or horror (or elements of fantasy or horror) in a modern-day setting is quite interesting to me, as I’ve always felt rather put off by long, rambling novels that require maps of make-believe worlds and dictionaries of fake languages or compendiums of various fantasy creature races to make sense of the story.

As it turns out, this genre seems to be made for me. All of the perks of otherworldly adventure with none of the drawbacks? Sign me up.

Jim Bernheimer’s Dead Eye: Pennies for the Ferryman takes a rather well-known ghost story concept (human becomes imbued with the power to speak to the dead and is now plagued by ghostly requests) and adds depth, humor and historical accuracy to make what could have been a trite journey over well-worn territory his own.

As a soldier in Iraq, Mike Ross loses brothers in arms in an IED explosion. He also loses part of his vision. Returning to the States for recuperation, Mike receives a cornea that brings along some new issues to our already troubled protagonist. Mike, having had to cope for most of his life with his father’s abandonment of the family and the stark poverty that came with it, now sees and hears ghosts.

What’s a poor veteran with a hardworking single mother to do? In between taking classes at the local community college, Mike helps out the neighborhood spirits, usually getting the snot kicked out of him in the process and occasionally making a bit of cash on the side.

Pennies (I’m assuming this is the first of a Dead Eye series, both by the novel’s use of a divided title and the flow of the actual story) diverts from the usual humans-and-ghosts story by including both a military and historical aspect that I’ve never seen before, and it works very well. Mike’s Army experiences (and buddies, both living and dead) come in handy numerous times, and Bernheimer makes use of a number of landmarks and historical persons from a region steeped in historical battles (Pennsylvania/Maryland/Virginia, an area both well-known to and rather dear to this native Pittsburgher). There’s even a place in the story for Edgar Allan Poe, which warmed my macabre little heart to read. Bernheimer’s use of Poe’s mysterious death (and explanation of it) are worth reading the book for alone.

The novel isn’t without its issues, however. Whether a stylistic choice or not, I’m unable to tell, but the first-person narrative switches from past to present multiple times, yanking me more than once out of the thick of the story. I spotted a handful of places in which the book also felt rough, where the author’s choices in punctuation or syntax were a bit out of synch with my own as a reader. Distracting, absolutely, but not so terrible that I put the book down.

All in all, Pennies is a fun read that breathes a bit of fresh life into the “tortured human haunted by spirits” story. Did you know ghosts can see past the shiny metallic coating on scratch-off lottery tickets? I didn’t. I could use a sidekick like that, as could most of my coworkers. One of them has a bad eye, too. I wonder if I can convince him to get a cornea transplant.

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