The Undead Return

My favourite self-publishing horror writer, RR Haywood, has returned with another batch of books in the Undead series, which is now up to 28 books and 3 side books. Mr. Haywood has also split the books in five seasons, almost as if they were for TV. The first week is season one, the second week season two, and so on, with book 26 being the first one in season five. From what I can tell, each book in the new season is due to be released every fortnight.

Blood at the Premier as the book covers suggests is a stand alone novel from the undead world. Henrietta is a glamour model at the premier of a new film, possibly starring Paco Maguire, who features in a number of the main books. Anyway, Henrietta is similar to Jordon or Jodie Marsh, except that she wants to be move on and make documentaries. She is also tough and intelligent, so when all hell breaks loose, she is there with a cool head to save a well-meaning but useless singer from a boy band and the head of documentaries at Channel 4.

Suffice it to say, Henrietta saves the life of the Channel 4 executive many times without any thanks, while also trying to find a safe haven for them all.

This was another very good side book, similar in quality to the Camping Shop. The book also neatly introduces us to Clarence from the main series.

Undead 26 – The aftermath of the “war” at Gatwick. Everyone is in need of some rest. Unfortunately, a satellite falls to Earth, landing on their new HQ, burying Reginald. There is then a frantic rush to save him and fend off another wave of the undead, when all they all wanted to do was lick their wounds and rest up.

This was a full on rollercoaster return to the books, which has become beyond epic. The book also doesn’t focus on Howie, Dave, or the new contingent of secret agents, who we still know very little about or what their agenda is. I expect more will be revealed as series 5 progresses.

Undead 27 – This time the group do manage some rest. With their previous HQ destroyed, they find a large garden center stroke DIY superstore to hole up in. Howie is struggling to deal with some of the humans who they saved, who were ungrateful, unhelpful and had turned on each other. Howie isn’t sure if the world deserves to be saved.

Again, like the previous book, this focuses on the other characters, specifically Maddox and Booker. When it inevitably kicks off, it does with style and plenty of twists and turns. I was almost left with whiplash.

Another excellent book, albeit less than 200 pages, the same with Undead 26. Mr. Haywood has promised that the subsequent books will become longer and longer as series 5 progresses.

The Undead series as a whole is huge and it could be intimidating to anyone who hasn’t read the first book. I would suggest that the books are one of the most entertaining set of horror books I have read. Sometimes it feels like there is too much narrative, and there are occasional typos. The books originally started out as one book per day, but I think by about book 24 this went out of the window and even though we are on book 27, it is actually day 30 or 31 of the uprising. I hope for one, that the series never ends.

The Politician by Tim Sullivan

Wow, I’ve already finished reading book #4 in the DS Cross crime thriller series, and The Politician is another great read.

A retired local politician has been murdered, and it is assumed to be a robbery gone wrong with jewelry missing. However, with DS George Cross on the case there is mor to it than at first appeared.

The Politician was in the process of divorcing her husband after his latest affair. Their son is in deep debt with a loan shark and had previously stolen a painting from his parents to sell. The Politician was involved in a planning dispute which had been going on for years, for which she had received plenty of threats. She was also an online agony aunt, giving out impartial advice, again which she received plenty of death threats. Her long term assistant is on a year long break in the far east. Due to the high profile of the victim, someone in the force higher up than George’s immediate boss is drafted in to oversee the investigation, although she has enough sense to leave George to his own devices.

What can I say? Another cracking crime thriller from my new favourite author. Unfortunately, there are only two more full length books in the series, with two short stories, which I don’t think will keep me occupied for very long. How soon will DS Cross be turned into a TV series? Any recommendations for who I should seek out next?

The Patient by Tim Sullivan

As I have previously blogged, I have became a huge DS Cross fan, written by Tim Sullivan. I have now finished the third book in the series, The Patient.

A woman arrives at the crime unit and refuses to leave. She believes that her daughter was murdered, while the police have concluded that she died of an accidental overdose. George Cross talks with her, and determines that she is correct, her daughter was murdered.

In this book not only does DS Cross have to find who the killer was, but he has to battle with his superiors and a colleague who reports him, the colleague who concluded that it was an accidental overdose. On top of this, George’s father is taken ill, Stephen the priest continues to pressure George into performing an organ recital, and George also opens a can of worms by writing to his long absent mother.

To find the killer, DS Cross has to investigate the girl’s still drug using ex-boyfriend, her creepy ex-boss, a number of other former drug users, and her therapist. One of them surely must be the murderer!

This was another excellent crime thriller, and while I might have partially guessed who the killer was before the end, there was still another twist. I’m also enjoying the relationship between George and his police partner, Ottey. The minor characters add a lot to the story as well.

Once again I gave this book five stars, with Goodreads having an average score of 4.6. I have already started reading book four in the series. My only gripe is that there aren’t a dozen more books in the series to read.

The Camping Shop by R. R. Haywood

This novella is R. R. Haywood at his best. The Camping Shop is a bonus short book within the Undead series of books. However, unlike Blood on the Floor, which I reviewed last month, this is what a bonus story should be like.

The story is set about three weeks into the apocalypse, and Howie and his group stumble upon a large camping shop. There are plenty of dead bodies inside, although they weren’t killed by the undead, they appear to have been killed by each other. Obviously, two groups inside the shop attacked each other, after barricading themselves inside away from the carnage. They had running water, high-energy camping food, camping stoves and gas, so more than enough to keep them alive for a long time. So what happened?

Different members of the team have flashbacks as they try to work out what went on, until Reginald steps in.

Less than 70 pages long, this was an excellent addition to the Undead series. I wouldn’t recommend it if you’ve not read the rest of the series, but as a bonus it is unmissable. I gave it five stars, while on Goodreads it has a very healthy average score of 4.5.

The Cyclist by Tim Sullivan

I rushed through the first book in the DS Cross series (read my review here) and it didn’t take me much longer to read the second book in the series.

The Cyclist is the second DS Cross book, and it involves the death of a drug taking cyclist with a number of not so much enemies, but people who do not like him. Was it his team mates who objected to his performance enhancing drug taking? Was it the parents of the teenage girl he was seeing? Was it a rival drug supplier? Was it his brother? Slowly over the course of the book more information is teased out.

The second book was easily as good as the first, with all of the main characters more flesh out than previously. DS Cross’ partner Ottey is slowly coming around to his peculiar ways, especially as his murder solving rate is second to none. His immediate superior has resigned himself to simply allowing DS Cross to continue being an anomaly. Towards the end of the book I had an idea who the murderer was, however, I was wrong, as well as there being an added twist.

I gave this book another five stars and I have already started reading the third book in the series, The Patient. Unfortunately, there does appear to be only six full books in the series, with another two short stories, which means it won’t take me long to devour them.

The Rise by Ian Rankin

This was heavily advertised on Amazon and Kindle. I’m guessing that Amazon paid the famous writer of the Rebus series of books a hefty fee to write an Amazon exclusive short story.

The story is set in an exclusive and very expensive apartment block, filled with a diverse set of characters. There is a fading film actress, a Russian Oligarch, and a Saudi Princess.

The night concierge is found murdered and the owners of occupants of the building do not welcome the intrusion of the police. There are a number of dead ends and interesting asides with the various inhabitants, and then a surprising twist at the end.

I have to say that I enjoyed this short story, partly because it was short. It would definitely have dragged if Ian Rankin had been tempted to turn it into a full length book. If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited and enjoy a good crime thriller, I would recommend this, eve if like me, you’ve never read anything by Ian Rankin. I had a quick search, and apparently there are 24 books in the Rebus series. If I stumble across the first book in the series in a charity shop, I will probably buy it, but as they are not available on the Unlimited subscription, I will most likely give them a miss.

Anyway, I gave The Rise four stars.

Odium Origins by Claire C. Riley

I wrote about The Dead Saga books #0.5 and #1 a few weeks ago. I had mixed feelings about the series, however, I downloaded and read Odium Origins, which is book #1.5 in the series.

This book, as the “Origins” name suggested is all about the back story of a number of characters from book #1. Again, there are positives and negatives. There are also SPOILERS.

Positives are that each story within the book isn’t very long, with just enough information to find out who they were before the zombie outbreak and what they were doing.

Negatives include too much eye rolling from the characters. Also, if I’m not mistaken, apart from Mikey, all of the characters are killed by the end of the first book, which I feel negates the need for an origins book. One character specifically I would like to have read more about in the main book, but there you go.

I am also unsure how invested I am into the series. However, as I have only read the first book, it seems only fair that I give the second book a read. There is also a book #2.5, and apparently a book #3.5 on the way. There are enough books in the series to keep me occupied for a while, possibly.

The average score on Goodreads for book #1.5 is 4.35, which feels overly generous to me, as I gave it 3, which was overly harsh, but I didn’t think it deserved 4.

Strange Ink by Gary Kemble

I was very kindly given a book token at Christmas by my mother-in-law, and Strange Ink was one of the book which I bought with it.

Harry Hendrick is a washed up journalist working for a minor local newspaper. He’s recently split up with his long term girlfriend and he is a borderline alcoholic. He wakes up one morning after a friend’s stag party with a raging hangover and a large brand new tattoo, which he has no recollection of getting. Along with the brand new tattoo he had a nightmare where two men were disposing of a dead body.

Being a journalist, just about, he tried to find out where and when he was “inked”, but to no avail. A week later, he had another nightmare and wakes up with another tattoo, and this time he wasn’t drunk. The nightmare is all about someone in the army in Afghanistan, who discovers a massacre of innocent civilians and a link to the drug import. Are the nightmares and tattoo from someone beyond the grave?

I really enjoyed this book with the combination of crime thriller with supernatural horror elements. The main character, Harry, is likeable, mostly, and the supporting cast are also well written. I was gripped all the way to the end.

I gave the book a rare five stars, which is possibly a little generous, but four stars would have been harsh. What I found interesting is that the book has an average score of only 3.5 on Goodreads, with plenty of two or three star reviews. Seeing as there are another Harry Hendrick books available, this definitely won’t be my last book from Mr. Kemble.

The Dentist by Tim Sullivan

I don’t generally read regular crime thrillers as I prefer horror. One reason for this is that horror is make believe, while crime thrillers are often far nastier than any horror book I’ve read. Case in point would be the Scarpetta series of books by Patricia Cornwell.

I stumbled across the DS Cross series of books last summer, specifically one called The Cyclist. However, that particular book was the second in the series, so I downloaded the first one, The Dentist, onto my Kindle and then promptly forgot about it. Last week I started to read it, and had finished it in a matter of days, it was that good.

DS Cross is not your ordinary detective. He suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome. He is nicknamed DS Odd by some of his unkinder colleagues. However, his conviction rate is the best in the city.

In this book, a homeless man has been killed. It is thought that it was simply two homeless men having an argument about alcohol and one of them killed the other. For DS Cross there are too many unanswered questions. He doesn’t believe that the man who’s been arrested and charged with the murder is the guilty man.

I won’t give any more away, but the story and the characters are compelling. This was easily one of the best crime thrillers that I have read in a long time, and I have already downloaded the second book in the series.

I gave the book a very rare five stars out of five, although the average score is a lowly 4.2. Maybe I’m not on the pulse of what is a good crime thriller, and possibly there are dozens of other crime writers out there even better than Tim Sullivan. Who knows?

Blood on the Floor by R. R. Haywood

I’ve got a lot of time for Mr Haywood, as he one of the most successful self-publishing British authors. I have read many of his books and his Undead series is easily one of the best zombie series available. Currently, the series is up to about book number 25 (I think), with the next book promised soon.

Anyway, Blood on the Floor is a bonus book from the Undead world which looks at two more minor characters, and how they entered into the wider Undead series.

Early on in the main series there is a character called Paco Maguire, who is definitely modelled on The Rock. He’s a larger than life American film star, in the UK filming a zombie film when a real life zombie outbreak starts. Despite his macho persona, in real life he’s a coward. Slowly, over the first ten day, he becomes braver, mostly because of an immune dog, who attacks ever zombie they come across.

Unfortunately, Paco succumbs to overwhelming numbers and become infected, ultimately being killed by the dog who saved him. A couple of weeks later, Paco stumbles into the main series with Heather, a woman who he saved, and who also saved him. Blood on the Floor describes how the pair of them met, and how Paco survived becoming infected.

There’s a lot to like about this book, as the stories intertwines with the main books, and we see the action from a completely different point of view. However, in my opinion, the book is too long. The first half drags and would work far better if maybe 50% of the first half of the book was edited out. The second half is far better, and by the end it is brilliant, but again, a good portion of the second could have been ditched.

Finally, if you’re not a fan of the Undead series, don’t even think about starting to read this book. It is definitely one for fans of the main series of books. I gave the book three stars, which I thought was generous, but looking on Goodreads, it has an average score of 4.5, which is astounding.

There are another two books set within the Undead world; Blood at the Premier and The Camping Shop. I have downloaded them both to my Kindle as they are available with Kindle Unlimited, but I might give them a miss.