REVIEW: Dead City by Joe McKinney

Texas Toast.

Battered by five cataclysmic hurricanes in three weeks, the Texas Gulf Coast and half of the lone star state is reeling from the worst devastation in history. Thousands are dead or dying but the worst is only beginning. Amid the wreckage, something unimaginable is happening: a deadly virus has broken out, returning the dead to life with an insatiable hunger for human flesh.

The Nightmare Begins

Within hours the plague has spread all over Texas. San Antonio police officer Eddie Hudson finds his city overrun by a voracious army of the living dead. Along with a small group of survivors, Eddie must fight off the savage horde in a race to save his family.

Hell on Earth

There’s no place to run. No place to hide. The zombie horde is growing as the virus runs rampant. Eddie knows he has to find a way to destroy the walking horrors but he doesn’t know the price he will have to pay!

Dead City was a novel written by Joe McKinney and published in 2006. The story is of Eddie Hudson, a police officer, a husband and a father. A real average Joe under the uniform. The story is of Eddie Hudson trying to read his family while the dead have risen. He goes through chaos in search for his family.

Well, I’m going to say first off that I did enjoy reading this book, but like any other it did have its pros and cons.

The book is a first person POV of Eddie. First person POVs are hard to write in my opinion, because you are dealing with one perception of the story but this single perception can be the Selling point if it is constructed well. The biggest pro for writing from a first person perspective is that the though process is a lot easier to bring forth without boring the reader, which can be a common occurrence when reading a story through a third person POV. He can utilize the thought process of the main character to establish a strong connection between reader and story, if done properly that is. The author has done a great job when it comes to creating a connection between reader and character. What impresses me more was that he was able to make this connection even though the main character is a police officer. It is very difficult to establish a connection between reader and story when the character is a cop, because for the simple fact that most people don’t what it’s like to have to do what an officer does. I applaud McKinney’s ability to relate even through the character’s profession. You may think it doesn’t have much to do with it but it does indeed have more to do with it than you think.

Now, Characters. This was a problem for me. A lot of the characters that Eddie encounters aren?t as well drawn as I would have liked them to be. Some of them are a little cliché, but they are kind of realistic in their own ways. I felt as though there were too many characters for the author to juggle considering the length of the book. If the book was a bit longer than this would be a different story, but the problem that the majority of authors must face is a Balance War. What I mean by Balance War should speak for its self, the author must balance between various elements of the story: Descriptions, Dialogue, inner monologue/thoughts, characters, pace, time frames (sometimes) and plot events. There is no such thing as a perfect balance, and no author can possibly attain a perfect balance.

If one tried than they would end up being a zombie. An Author must use less of certain elements in order to make other elements of the story much more prominent. It?s a trade off. If he spent more time on each of the characters in the book, than it would have affected the pace of the book, which in turn would affect the plot, than it would usually turn most readers off. Pace of the book can make or break the reader’s attention. I support his decision in choosing that he must give up character development on semi important characters in order to maintain a strong pace which makes the story much better. He utilizes a lot of his character development skills on that of Eddie Hudson, which is the most important character of the story.

Realism! Many readers might not appreciate this as much as I do when it comes to horror, but realism to me is a very important element. Realism is simple, it makes a stronger connection with the reader!

Again, comes the discussion of Balance War in order to grab a reader, a writer must utilize some of creative ability to show something the reader will want to see because they haven’t seen it somewhere else and it usually results in the author exceeding his boundaries of reality. I feel that is a bad rule to break, because you lose that much more of a connection with the reader, which dilutes the story. Joe McKinney kept the realism in key. I liked the scarceness of ammunition. I hate reading a book and all the characters have 1,000 rounds of ammo for every weapon they have and somehow they manage to carry it all. I like that he was scrounging to find ammunition for his pistol, this adds so much realism to the story that it makes it that much better.

Elements of surroundings. I took notice of this when I read it and I liked it. The author does a fine job at describing the darkness and he manipulates it to add a very eerie feeling to the story. I thought it was well conceived and he couldn?t have done it better. I would also like that the number of zombies they encounter increase slowly over the course of the book. It created suspense which was enhanced by his eerie descriptions of the darkness.

Soul, what I mean by soul is emotion. He portrays emotion very well through the main character Eddie. He has a realistic firmness that resides well within Eddie. Also, McKinney has some bits of philosophical undertones which I like very much. One scene that particularly resided with me was a short but sweet description of an empty house. It was very well done.

Overall, This is a fun read overall. There are a few minor plot errors but they don’t deter much from the story. Despite the amount of somewhat weak characters the story is paced well, the tone is very appropriate considering the nature of the story, and it’s a very realistic read. It’s a realistic read that will have you sleeping with a nightstick under your pillow.

Available on Amazon