Flesh Eaters and Saving One's Family from Infection: A Book Review

*Full disclosure: the Kensington Publishing Corp provided a paperback version of this novel for review.

**Here by some spoilers.

Author: Joe McKinney.

Flesh Eaters is Joe McKinney's third novel set in the Houston area, where several hurricanes have left residents without their homes and most of their hope. This title recently released in paper back form (April 5th, 2011) and the novel's plot puts two families squarely against each other, while a zombie styled apocalypse threatens to wipe both clans from the face of the earth. The result is a triple threat, as a natural disaster, moaning cannibals and bank robbing police officers each vie for your engrossed attention.

However, there is a central difference between Eleanor, a police sergeant and Mark Shaw, a career officer and captain. The latter character, while honourable in his attempts to save survivors, is centrally motivated by avarice. Eleanor is less externally motivated and she is constantly doing her best to save her child, Madison and her husband, Jim. Their differing goals bring them to confrontation in a devastated Houston, while those infected with a necrotizing virus cause further confusion and chaos.

Mark Shaw has two sons, Brent and Anthony. Together they form a plan to rob a nearby bank to secure retirement and then some: "give me an hour and we'll all be seven million dollars richer" (Pg. 42). The potential risks involved in such a venture are increased, as the water levels continue to rise, in one of the most brutal hurricane seasons ever. These risks are what lead to this patriarch losing parts of himself and even members of his family.

Eleanor is no less ambitious, but when push comes to shove she backs up her family rather than pursuing easy cash: "I want to hug my daughter again. I want to smother her face in kisses" (Pg. 321). This higher and more worthy endeavour saves her family from looters, a mobilizing army of the infected and a raging Hurricane Hector. She holds her family together and hopefully readers see why McKinney shows a positive outcome for Eleanor, while the Shaws struggle and later fall because of their extrinsic focus: "Shaw had only his rage and his money" (Pg. 313).

Of course, this brings the two competing themes of greed and helping one's family to a convincing head. Gunfire erupts between Shaw and Eleanor, as an infection, formed from pollutants in the water, spreads to nearly a million Houstonians. The final chapters are exciting, with Shaw losing all sight of what is truly important. His hubris, like many Greek heroes of tragedy e.g. Oedipus and Odysseus, is enough to topple one man and his family.

Flesh Eaters is a prequel to McKinney's other novel Apocalypse of the Dead. Flesh Eaters is now available through the Kensington Publishing Corp and horror fiction readers are encouraged to pick up McKinney's latest. Not only relevant because of the themes mentioned, McKinney knows how to direct readers' attention to what is truly important: family, while the tension builds like the lull before a great storm.

Overall: 8.5 out of 10 (tense, well drawn characters, morally focused, descriptive and even mildly believable, with hurricane season set to begin once again).

Visit Joe McKinney's website for more info' on this title and others in the trilogy (Dead City, and Apocalypse of the Dead):

Joe McKinney - Old Major's Dream

Don't hold back, purchase now (available for under $5):



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Posted in: apocalypse of the dead,avarice,bank robbery,dead city,family,greed,houston,hurricane,joe mckinney,kensington,kensington publishing corp,morality,zombie,zombie styled book review 2011