The Gathering Dead follows the story of a US Army Special Forces ODA or Operational Detachment Alpha or A-Team callsign OMEN who are tasked to retrieve and safeguard a research scientist during a zombie outbreak in New York City. Sounds kind of like a bad late night movie but surprisingly, it isn’t.
Knight is one of the few authors who actually have done some rudimentary research to make The Gathering Dead an exciting and plausible read.
The OMEN Team is well detailed as is the support elements from the 160th SOAR. Harsh times call for harsh decisions and when the team is evacuating the scientist and his daughter back to Central Park for extraction the team leader, McDaniels is forced to make such a decision to complete his mission. While that weighs heavily on him he has to focus more of getting his people and their high value package out the hot zone so some kind of vaccine or antidote can be created.
That is when the defecation truly hits the rotary oscillator.
Splitting the team up between two MH60R Blackhawks, OMEN heads out of the now dead apple. One MH60 doesn’t make if off the deck as the stenches, what the zombies are called, break through the containment perimeter and attack the helo. Losing that portion of the team is never a good thing. The helo that the other portion of team is on has a bent FLIR so its forced to fly below the smoke layer of the burning city and ends up crashing when a stench takes a two pointer out of an office window and hits the rotors.
OMEN is now on the ground, with wounded from the crashed helo and the HVP and his daughter, their only choice is to seek shelter. The team takes refuge inside an office building that they sweep and clear then fortify as best they can. It’s here that they meet other survivors, the building’s maintenance manager and his two daughters. While the building is relatively secure, this is now a city full of millions of infected and the team is down personnel, low on ammo, taking care of wounded, saddled with civilians and now need extraction, all with a storm front coming in.
When their next method of extraction has an issue closing off that avenue, the survivors are now faced with limited options. Wait for the stenches to eventually get inside or find an alternate route out of the city.
Stephen Knight paints an incredible world of terror when zombies start to take over NYC. His writing is far better than others that have attempted to use a military unit in this genre. However, and most of you knew this was coming, however there were a few minor issues that stood out for me. Just to recap, what jumps out at me will in all probability not jump out to the average readers.
Let’s look at ODA OMEN or A-Team OMEN. McDaniels, the primary character holds the rank of major, a rank that is above captain and below lieutenant colonel. The other ranking officer is Chief Warrant Officer 3 Keith. CWO3 Keith would in all likelihood be the assistant detachment commander as warrant officers are usually in some specialized field like aviation, commo, nuclear, etc and fit into the chain of command somewhere between enlisted and officers. However, Keith is referred as the detachment commander which struck me as a bit strange. Not saying it couldn’t happen but its just a bit strange. But that’s just me. There are some other minor issues as well. The secondary extraction method was by USMC MH22 aka the Osprey tilt rotor. Onboard this aircraft one of the Marines refers to the Navy Corpsman as a medic. While this seems minor it actually isn’t, the Marines are part of the Navy, they like to refer to themselves as the Men’s Department and the Navy provides the Marines with their medical personnel in the form of a Navy Corpsman. No one in the Marines or the Navy would ever refer to a corpsman as a medic.
When the final method of extraction is provided by the Coast Guard and their banana boat, a RHI is launched for recovery. Is this a RHIB as it’s commonly referred to or is it something else? RHI could be Rigid Hull Inflatable or it’s a RHIB, Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat. Not real big issues just want to make sure I’m on the same page here. During the hectic and suspenseful exfil through NYC to the waiting CG vessel, McDaniels uses one of the SAOR teams HP MP5s. Not a big issue but its mentioned that the weapon is suppressed. Now I have to wonder, if a SOAR unit member is using a suppressed MP5, why? If he is providing ground security for one of the SOAR birds having a suppressed weapon is kind of silly as the rotor and turbine noise of an idling helo will totally ruin any attempt at being stealthy and covert thereby negating the use of a suppressed weapon. A few other issues were the use of the MK119 Grenade Launcher. I’m going out on a limb here and thinking that this was a reference to the MK19 Mod 3. These are not major issues and in no way detract from the plot or story. These are just issues I found that jumped out at me and by now if you’ve read my previous reviews you should all know I’m a bit anal when it comes to details and accuracy.
Overall, Gathering of the Dead was an entertaining, exciting read and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. Knight’s descriptive writing and the pace he sets throughout make this book a solid page turner.
Available on Amazon.
