Victor and Harlan are two young philosophy professors who have been friends, rivals and inveterate pranksters since their student days, but things have changed: Victor has turned into a wild hedonist in keeping with his belief that "when you're dead, you're dead", while Harlan has become a dull Stoic leading a strict unemotional existence in preparation for the afterlife. They are on holiday with their long-suffering wives in the Canadian wilderness, and Victor has devised a prank which he believes will prove the falseness of Harlan's philosophy and shake him out of his passionless state -- but the prank goes horribly wrong. After a heated argument a shot is fired, and one of the professors lies dead! This is far from the end of the story however; in fact, the nightmare is just beginning ... With When the Reaper Calls, the author of I'll Be Back Before Midnight has done it again, concocting a highly entertaining, scary tale that will keep audiences laughing, gasping and guessing throughout.