REVIEW: Sherlock Holmes and the Flying Zombie Death Monkeys by: Chris Wood

I think that in this case the title of this story is, in some ways, self-explanatory. Sherlock Holmes and the Flying Zombie Death Monkeys by Chris Wood is a book of four short stories based around Holmes, Watson, and –of course- flying zombie monkeys. In the first story (of the same title) is our introduction to the newly envisioned type of zombie. In this zombie tale, we don’t have your average, plain old vanilla zombie that eats human flesh and shambles around aimlessly, no in Chris Wood’s vision when someone becomes a zombie they turn into a monkey; and not just any monkey, but a FLYING monkey. The subsequent three tales: A Scandal in Burnley, The Pain of the Pianoforted Parts, and The Mystery of the Speckled Wang all begin as a typical detective story would, only with more sarcasm, but quickly takes a turn for the absurd. In fact, the entire book is absurd in the way the material is handled and it doesn’t take itself seriously. Normally this would be a bad thing, in the hands of someone less skilled I would say it would have been a disaster, but it was probably one of the greatest things I have ever read. This book had me laughing throughout and in fact has some many quotable lines that I found myself using some in everyday conversation. It reminded me a lot of watching a British comedy, which I love for the dry humor and sarcasm.

The pacing of the stories was nice since it was four shorts, so I could read a fairly complete story and then put it down for a while without feeling like I lost momentum. There is some gore, but it is mostly comical so if you are looking for a blood fest, this might not be what you are looking for. The language was organic and was subtly sarcastic in places while being blatantly joking. This was honestly a great read that kept me entertained. I always love unique ideas, so the zombies being flying monkeys that at random crash into the plot was a new experience that I really felt worked – and if you are anything like me, be honest, the best part of the Wizard of Oz was the flying monkeys, much like in this book.

Available at Amazon