Dead City

by Joe McKinney

Book Overview

In the wake of five cataclysmic hurricanes, a deadly virus breaks out in Texas, returning the dead to life - with an insatiable hunger for human flesh.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786017813
• ISBN13: 9780786017812
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Pinnacle Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Wanna read!!

I'm really excited bout starting this. Usually I don't do series books but hey y not??! Keep u uodated

Five Headshots out of Five

Very rational, realistic, and well-written survival fiction featuring standard virus-driven zombies, both fast and slow. The basic plot isn't unique--the protagonist has to find his family, if they're still alive--but McKinney depicts the initial outbreak with fast-paced, entertaining action scenes, definitely an excellent hook. The zombie attacks become repetitious near the middle of the novel (shoot, run, shoot, run--oh no, we're cornered), but McKinney maintains the pace, so the scenes blow right by. Some of the best bits are McKinney's descriptions of police life and police procedure. Take this passage for example: "On patrol, officers use the barrel of a shotgun as a trash can. You find everything from gum wrappers to chicken bones stuffed down inside them." McKinney packs in more info about the weapons cops use, and a little about their tactics, all of which adds texture and realism. Overall, a decent traditional zombie yarn.

A Riveting Zombie Police Procedural

To be believable, the literature of horror and fantasy requires a strong foundation in consensus reality. If a character is written with emotional depth, the reader will identify with that character. If, further, the character's particular niche in society is drawn with authenticity and attention to detail, and if the world around him is a reasonable facsimile of the world we all recognize, then the reader will tend to believe in whatever happens to that character, no matter how bizarre or monstrous. Suspension of disbelief will be established. Joe McKinney's Dead City is a case in point. Eddie Hudson is a San Antonio police officer on duty when a zombie invasion hits his city. During the course of a hellish night, Eddie fights off hordes of the undead while making his way back to his wife and kid. Along the way he manages to extricate himself from a series of zombie ambushes, one worse than the other, participates in numerous car chase sequences, and knocks off his share of zombies with an assortment of weapons. The novel unfolds like a police procedural with a twist: all the bad guys are dead. But Eddie is always in character -- a cop trying to do the best job he can. McKinney is either a cop or a former cop, or he's done excellent research on police procedures in the San Antonio area. A line like this has the ring of lived truth: "I popped the trunk and pulled out my shotgun case. The Department gives us the Mossberg 500 -- a standard, tough-as-nails twelve-gauge pump, built to take a beating and fire just about any kind of shell made." Or how about this description of a wrecked auto: "The front of my car looked like the face of a boxer who has just lost a fight." With lines like these you can't help but believe the physical reality of Eddie's world. But even more impressive is that McKinney writes with a simple emotional depth that instantly captures the reader's attention and sympathy. How's about this for a novel's opening line: "There's an empty parking lot near the corner of Seafarer and Rood where I used to go to fight with my wife." Lovely. By grounding his work in the emotional and physical reality of a cop's life, McKinney provides the container of believability so essential to a work of the fantastic. We believe that the zombies are here, because Eddie -- this trustworthy cop -- tells us that they are. Less careful writers create emotionally flat characters occupying half-baked careers -- but the resulting horrors will be less believable and meaningful. By the time Dead City comes to an end, we feel like we know Eddie Hudson really well: after all, we've been with him fighting zombies all night! One of the best zombie novels to come along in years. Lots of fun and filled with clever surprises. Highly recommended. [...]

Excellent, fast-paced read

I stumbled across this book at the library of all places and I couldn't put it down. Dead City is a very fast read with plenty of action, gore, and great character development. I was happy that it took a more traditional zombie route (I just can't get into the zombie animals described in some other books) and I'm looking forward to future books by Joe McKinney. I plan on adding this to my collection and I recommend other fans of the genre do so as well.

If you love living dead this is one for you!!!

I couldnt put it down from the moment I started reading it!!If there was ever a book that should be word for word produced into a movie,then this is it!!I would love to see this on the big screen.From one moment to the next Eddie Hudson who is a police officer finds himself in amazing situations tring to find his wife and child.I have to say this is by far one of the best written Living Dead books I have read in a while.There are no weird mind reading Orbs or freak zombie animals or evil vs good monsters,just good old plain dead coming back to life and that should be enough to scare the heck out of you!!This is one I wont sell as soon as Im finished,this one is going on my shelf right next to I am Legend.

Dead City: a survival horror thrill ride!

[...] "Dead City" is a fantastic tale of survival horror that starts with a bang and never lets up. Occupying the middle ground between police procedural and zombie thriller, Joe McKinney's first novel is the tale of a lone patrolman searching for his family over the course of one horrific night. The time is now: Texas has been pummeled by a series of brutal hurricanes, with refugees scattered across the Lone Star State in search of shelter. Many of them have settled in San Antonio, inadvertently bringing a new kind of plague with them: one that transforms those infected into bloodthirsty zombies. Patrolman Eddie Hudson, a young man with a wife and newborn baby, is working the evening shift when all hell breaks loose. Dispatched to what he thinks is a simple fistfight, Hudson finds himself plunged head-first into the apocalypse. Confronted with the ravenous infected, Hudson barely escapes with his life - only to find that the entire city has succumbed to the zombie onslaught. Hudson is suddenly alone, and thousands of zombies stand between him and his family. He might just see them again, if he can survive the night. Hudson's story is a real thrill for the reader, jam-packed with fast driving, shooting, desperate stand-offs and lots of blood. McKinney, a San Antonio homicide detective by trade, writes with an authenticity that brings the events of "Dead City" to bloody, grasping life.