Dead of Night and Turning a Blind Eye to All that Bloodshed: A Book Review

Author: Jonathan Maberry.

Bram Stoker Award winner Jonathan Maberry continues his long string of horror novels with Dead of Night. This latest title was released October 25th, 2011 in paperback form by St. Martin's Press and this novel is hard to put down. At three hundred and fifty pages plus, this novel is also an in-depth look at how a plague could begin and turn normal folks into zombies. Semi-based in science, Maberry has provided a solid novel with Dead of Night. However, at the three hundred page mark the novel does get a little tiresome and repetitive. Maybe some unpredictability was needed in the final pages.

Dead of Night begins with the Lucifer 113 project, which was engineered in East Germany as a weapon. Now, one of the scientists from the project has been relocated by the CIA to Pennsylvania. Here, Volker works in secret on the virus until it is perfected as a tool for torture. The serial killer Homer Gibbon is the first test subject. Volker's plan is to contaminate Gibbon with the Lucifer 113 virus in order for Gibbon to rot underground once buried (while alive). However, Gibbon is transported to a local mortuary where he escapes. Lucifer 113 is highly contagious, so many more become infected and soon most residents of Stebbins are disease ridden or on the run. Can Desdemona save the day?

She might be able to if she can recover from some deep seated childhood issues. And at the dark heart of Dead of Night is Dez. She is the protagonist and much of Maberry's novel follows this cop as she tries to survive in a zombie apocalypse. That is no easy task. JT is her partner and together they bring violence to the growing chaotic hordes. JT is notably absent from the middle of the novel. Yet, Billy Trout, a newspaper reporter, fills in to record events. Trout is also a beau of Dez, but he is mostly on the periphery of Dez's life. Minors abound; yet, these characters stand out in this novel.

The explanation for the virus is interesting. Consciousness remains in those infected through some dodgy science. Those infected only need to breath once a minute; their heart barely murmurs. Maberry's attempt to explain the virus is welcomed while other elements are not. Once the novel begins then it is non-stop action all the way to the finale. Some might clutch their hearts from the adrenalin pump, but an eye in the storm could have been introduced to change the overly fast pacing. Some fans might enjoy this frenetic pace, others might find it unbelievable. As well, there are few writing errors in this novel and Maberry's writing style introduces over a hundred small chapters to cover many situations and characters. There is a lot to cover in this read including Dez's psychological trauma.

And here lies the major critique for this novel from this zombie fiction fan. Desdemona gets over her manizer (like womanizer) and alcoholic ways after being confronted by one zombie girl. This girl reminds Dez of her past traumas: the death of her soldier father and loss of mother to cancer at an early age. Yet, years of pain are not overcome by one brief incident in reality. Psychological trauma requires treatment and this unbelievable character arc took this reader out of the novel for a bit. Others might just blow by this strange incidence. In the end, Desdemona does a complete 180 turn to become more friendly and open despite having killed hundreds of people in the novel. Likely, Desdemona will be returning to her hard-drinking ways after seeing so much murder, at least in real life.

Overall, Dead of Night is an action packed zombie novel that focuses only on a couple of characters, possibly to the novel's detriment. There are lots of bloody situations to keep the reader horrified and the science of the virus is given some interesting attention. Maberry's style of writing keeps events moving forward at a fast clip, while some of the violence gets tiresome after awhile. This novel is recommended to zombie fiction fans. Just expect your believability meter to waver in certain sections. But, in the end, this is a story based on the walking dead, so some suspension of disbelief is necessary to get you from the first page to the final bloody conclusion.

Overall: 7 out of 10.

Another review of this novel is available at Graeme's Fantasy Book Review:

Dead of Night Reviewed at Graeme's

Author Jonathan Maberry's Blog is here:

Jonathan Maberry's Homepage

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