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Ryan has just thanked the man he has murdered for the pleasure he got from taking his life, when an incessant banging comes from his front door. He opens the door to Lilly, a frightened woman who is being chased by zombies. She explains that the world is being taken over by the living dead.
Then Lilly discovers Ryan’s secret hobby – killing the living. We discover that Ryan is a serial killer from the North of England and that he believes his best chance of survival in this new world of The Undead is to be part of a group. Lilly agrees to be part of his group – but with rules and conditions.
Ryan and Lilly then set off on an action-packed adventure, being chased by zombies as they search for somewhere safe.
The concept in Killing The Dead is brilliant. A serial killer in a zombie apocalypse. It’s great to read a zombie apocalypse story set in Britain, written by a British Writer. |
Ryan’s character was fascinating. Cold and logical but still likeable. The other characters felt two dimensional and lacked development – but this was probably due to the relative short length of the novella format. I think the story would have been better as a novel.
Ryan’s character was so captivating, that his perspective was enough to make the reader want to read on. The use of hooks would have benefited the story. As would the use shorter sentences for action scenes, which would have added to the readers sense of tension.
Killing The Dead had good description and perfect pacing, however the ending was a bit abrupt and left the reader with no sense of conclusion or satisfaction. I have since discovered that this novella is part of a series – it’s good to know that more of the story will be told.
A lack of editing let Killing The Dead down. There were sentences that didn’t make sense due to missed or wrong words, a few grammatical inaccuracies and similarities that just didn’t work.
Overall, you’ll enjoy Killing The Dead by Richard Murray, which is available to download for free (at time of writing this review) on Amazon.
Review soon,
Antony
