Geek in Review - Dead to Me By: Joe Alfano Posted on: 6/1/2009

Zombie Joe's To Read List Summer 2009
Dead to Me - Anton Strout	Review	Amazon Link
Deader Still - Anton Strout	Review	Amazon Link
Happy Hour of the Damned - Mark Henry	Review	Amazon Link
Blood Groove - Alex Bledsoe	Review	Amazon Link
Night Life - Caitlin Kittredge	Review	Amazon Link

 

Starting in on my post-move “to read” pile, I picked up Dead to Me by Anton Strout.  It is an urban fantasy, buddy cop style book that I have been meaning to read since the Writer’s Symposium at GenCon.  While picking up a copy of Death’s Daughter for review, I noticed Deader Still sitting next to it, so I picked up that and Dead to Me so that I could read them back to back.  Please keep in mind that this review will likely have some spoilers in it, although likely not as many as the review of Star Trek and Wolverine.

This was a story that I was pretty excited to finally sit down and read, due to the speaking that Anton did on the GenCon panels I attended.  He seemed to have a most balanced amount of snark, which meant that his main character was likely to have a touch of this as well.  I was not disappointed.

Simon is a snarky newbie in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs.  Just back from the shadier side of the law, he is now a member of the “Men in Black” style section of the Police Department that handles supernatural crime.  Only unlike the Men in Black, the DEA runs on a shoestring budget, which leads to the Other Division having to help out in a variety of cases that are not normally in their area – like helping to clear out a zombie infestation at the Met.

Another of the strong elements that draw me to this story is the amount of focus put on coffee.  Let’s face facts – I am a coffee whore.  The fact that the front for the secret department is a somewhat trendy café and movie house, makes for a real draw for me.  Include in an oracle who reads futures by digging her hands in coffee grounds, and a mentor with a weakness for iced vanilla lattes and I am sold.

Realistically, Simon shows us a flawed character devoid of serious superpowers, but an inkling to do good in the world no matter what.  The best description of it is stolen from the reruns of Charmed on TNT as he does not have an “active power” with which to hurt the bad guys.  Can anyone guess what is on when I am eating breakfast in the mornings?  Well, now that I have time to sit down for breakfast in the mornings.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am all for a good bit about a vampire/wizard/lycanthrope who is trying to live a good life and help other people.  I am all for supernatural slugfests from time to time.  I will not outgrow these any more than I will an occasional movie that is purely about shit blowing up.  Sorry, it is coded into my DNA.  But at the same time, it is nice to see someone a bit closer to the human end of the spectrum deal with this stuff and make it out the other side.

This book has a lot in it.  A touch of the Joss Whedon-like shows (including a bit about Simon watching too much Angel and having it influence his clothes), Law and Order (minus the law) style shows, and even a bit of Ghostbusters-esque scenes make for a story that drives a fast pace (past the initial introduction to the characters, of course) that really held my interest.  The only improvement I could see would be more zombies in the mix.  (Sorry, I could not resist that one.)

Overall, I will give this one 4 zombies out of 5 as I am not in the right frame of mind to chop a zombie in half with a head spade – I blame Harper’s Island for that one though.  If you are a fan of the genre, I suggest picking the title up.  I would also suggest following Mr. Strout on Twitter if you are a member of that service.  A direct link to his Twitter page is above.  From there, you can follow the link to his blog and authors web site if you are not a Twitter subscriber.