The Literate Kitty

Sure, you consider yourself a broad-minded person, but let’s be honest... no matter how enlightened you may be, it’s almost impossible to feel warm fuzzies toward zombies.  That whole “ I-wanna-catch-you-and-eat-your-braaaaain! ” thing (not verbalized, of course-- it’s awfully hard to talk when your own brain is nothing but mush and your lips have long since rotted away --but made abundantly clear via the grasping hands and gaping mouth holes) pretty much precludes anyone “normal” (and breathing) from forming a close and personal relationship with a member of the walking (and putrifying) dead. Or so I thought, anyway, until I gleefully stumbled upon Scott Kenemore’s Zombie, Ohio: A Tale of the Undead ... and what must be the most unusual take on zombies, ever . Peter Mellor is a popular college professor at a small university out in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio. ( Yes, obviously the little town actually has a name, but the point is, it’s not important. ) A handsome and charming (i...

If Charlie Hardie--the hero of author Duane Swierczynski’s Fun & Games --was channeling Bruce Willis as tough cop Officer John McClane in all his Die Hard , “Yippee-ki-yay, m***...!” glory (and believe me, he was ), then the follow-up, Hell & Gone , finds him walking as well in the footsteps of Willis’ conflicted convict James Cole from Twelve Monkeys , with a bit of Alice in Wonderland (well, if Alice were a bruiser sporting a five-o’clock shadow) and its down-the-rabbit-hole trippiness thrown in for good measure. Intrigued? You should be, because Swierczynski is the real deal when it comes to delivering pulse-pounding, visually-dynamic, explosively-energetic, and insanely-addictive action-suspense-crime-fiction thrillers. And, as outrageously good as the first in the Hardie trilogy (see my review here  ) was? I think the second, Hell & Gone , is that much better. ✠  ✠  ✠  ✠  ✠  ✠  ✠ Hell & Gone picks up right where the previous bo...