Flesh Eaters

Flesh Eaters is the third novel in Joe McKinney's Bram Stoker award winning series "Dead World." In my review for his second novel in the series Apocalypse of The Dead I had written that I was afraid I had finally been "zombie out." I am happy to report that with Flesh Eaters, Mr. McKinney has restored my faith in the zombie genre. This is one of the best "Traditional" zombie novels I have read in a long time. I consider a traditional zombie novel to be one at the onset of the zombie breakout. Unlike The Reapers Are The Angels by Alden Bell and The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan where the zombies are just an established part of life, Traditional Zombie books follow the concept set up by the "High Lord" of zombie lore, George Romero. Flesh Eaters most definitely falls into this category.

The outbreak falls in Houston TX in this installment of the series and follows two families, the Norton's and the Shaw's. Both are police families with members who are part of Houston Police Departments Emergency Operations Command. This seems to be the Texas version of FEMA. Eleanor Norton who works as an assistant to the head of the command, Captain Mark Shaw, her husband Jim and her daughter Madison form one family. The other is Captain Mark Shaw, with his adult sons Brent and Anthony Shaw, both police officers also.

For me these characters are what made this novel such a roaring success. It was amazing how deftly Mr. McKinney was able to show how the utter devastation of a person's life changes them for the best and the worst. To watch these characters step up of collapse was a wonder and made this novel gouged and bludgeoned heads above others of the Traditional type, even Mr. McKinney's previous novels. If this is examples of what is to come with this series, I want to read more.