by Stephen Kozeniewski
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Published: 2013
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Zombies
Paperback: 234 pages
Rating: 5
First sentence(s):
I woke up dead this morning.
Wait. What time is it? After midnight. Shit. It wasn't this morning. Better start over.
Braineater Jones wakes up face down in a swimming pool with no memory of his former life, how he died, or why he's now a zombie. With a smart-aleck severed head as a partner, Jones descends into the undead ghetto to solve his own murder.
But Jones's investigation is complicated by his crippling addiction to human flesh. Like all walking corpses, he discovers that only a stiff drink can soothe his cravings. Unfortunately, finding liquor during Prohibition is costly and dangerous. From his Mason jar, the cantankerous Old Man rules the only speakeasy in the city that caters to the postmortem crowd.
As the booze, blood, and clues coagulate, Jones gets closer to discovering the identity of his killer and the secrets behind the city's stranglehold on liquid spirits. Death couldn't stop him, but if the liquor dries up, the entire city will be plunged into an orgy of cannibalism.
Cracking this case is a tall order. Braineater Jones won't get out alive, but if he plays his cards right, he might manage to salvage the last scraps of his humanity.
My two-bits:
Got a kick out of reading this detective zombie story set in the 1930s. The historical elements of slang, characterization and booze creates a classic black and white noir mystery with a zombie twist.
The zombies in this story are of functioning non-gory type that live alongside humans including relations between (ahem).
The mystery solving moves along at a good clip with some funny and snarky moments.
* review copy courtesy of author
* part of September Zombies (schedule)
