Monday, October 8, 2007

The Down Home Zombie Blues-Linnea Sinclair

The Down Home Zombie Blues
Linnea Sinclair
Bantam Nov. 27, 2007, $6.99
ISBN: 9780553589641

Bahia Vista, Florida Homicide Detective Sergeant Theophilus “Theo” Petrakos is stunned to find a mummified corpse near a strange looking laptop. Not long after he leaves the crime scene, what seems like a zombie attacks him, Commander Jorie Mikkalah of the Guardian Force saves his life.

Jorie and her squad came to earth when they lost contact with a hunter agent stationed here. Apparently a zombie killed their agent. Her government created these monsters two centuries ago to control space traffic until a flaw in the programming turned them from HERO into killing mechs. The Guardians hunt them down, but here on Earth is the largest herd of zombies that has ever been reported; worse they are also the most intelligent found so far. Jorie must perform Intel to learn how before destroying the Three Hundred without the local humans nils learning of either of them. Still since Theo does Jorie drafts him to help on their mission before taking him back with her as he cannot be allowed to tell his people about them. Neither the cop nor the commander expected to fall in love while fighting THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES.

This is a terrific science fiction with the zombies nothing like those in the Romero universe; instead they are the result of bad technology and work as a cohesive unit. The story line is action-packed from the moment that the Floridian detective finds the corpse and the weird computer and never slows down until the final moment; yet there is much humor especially as the Guardian Force troops struggle to adapt to Florida’s way of life so that the locals do not know they are not of this world. Enhancing the superb thriller is that the romance between the nils and the alien is low-key as both know their priorities. Perhaps the only item left for Linnea Sinclair to answer is whether the zombies voted Republican in 2000.

Harriet Klausner

No comments: