Dead Of Night by Jonathan Maberry; St. Martin's Griffin; 2011; 360 pgs; $14.99 US

Sick of Zombies yet? I have, of late, begun to suffer “Zombie Burnout”…I’ve heard others complain, loudly and often, about how played-out Zombies have become as Horror fiction antagonists, but I hadn’t developed any symptoms of Zombie Fatigue myself until recently. Jonathan Maberry’s latest, Dead Of Night, couldn’t have come along at a worse time…….

In a nutshell, Maberry defied the odds, and not only delivered a decent Zombie tale, he delivered an outstanding Zombie tale. Dead Of Night’s Zombie plague starts off small enough, with a prison Doctor/former Mad Scientist delivering a dose of medicinal payback to convicted serial killer Homer Gibbons. The Doctor is administering more than just Homer’s lethal injection…..he’s also injected him with a nightmarish cocktail code-named Lucifer 113, which, in a best-case scenario, would keep Gibbons’ mind awake and aware, even as his body rots in the grave….payback for all of his victims. Needless to say, best-case scenarios have no place in a book like this. Gibbons body is claimed by a distant relative, who has it shipped to  Stebbins County, Pennsylvania, which soon becomes ground-zero for the end of the world. In short order, Gibbons is roaming the streets of Stebbins, creating others like him, and the hungry dead are soon the majority. Maberry has created some interesting Zombie killers in Police offers Desdemona Fox and JT Hammond, and their ally Billy Trout, a local Reporter who is involved in a tempestuous on-again, off-again relationship with the spitfire Dez.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m bored with Zombie novels for one reason: They don’t really have a villain. Sure, hordes of the living dead are villainous, don’t get me wrong. But I’ve always enjoyed Horror stories more when they have a consciously evil motivating force…..Which is probably why I love Brian Keene’s “The Rising” so much. Brian’s Zombies, possessed by Demonic Spirits, have character and personality. They don’t just eat you, they taunt and torment you WHILE they eat you. Maberry’s lead Zombie, Patient Zero Homer Gibbons, as the actual recipient of Lucifer 113, has retained not only his desire to kill and inflict pain, but he’s in possession of his full faculties. He can walk, talk, and reason as well as he ever could, and he’s hell-bent on spreading his disease. The rest of his undead cohorts don’t fare nearly as well…they’re standard Zombies, mindless eating machines chomping down on anything they encounter, but with a small twist: Maberry’s Zombies are alive and well in their heads, helpless passengers looking on in horror, unable to stop their bodies from killing their friends and neighbors. It’s a small twist, but one Maberry uses to full effect, making the reader aware of the full impact of each Zombie or Human kill, essentially making both the Hunters and the Hunted victims. Dead Of Night is potentially the greatest Zombie movie of all time waiting to happen…..The finale is edge-of-your-seat stuff, and left me wishing the book had gone on longer than it did. I’m sure Maberry could get a sequel out of this, if he wanted, but the ending, chillingly abrupt (If somewhat predictable…), is perfect as is. If you think you have it in you to give one more Zombie novel a try, Dead Of Night is highly recommended.

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Feb 5, 2012

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