Review: Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry

Dead of Night is a novel by Jonathan Maberry from St. Martin’s Griffin.

Book Blurb:

A prison doctor injects a condemned serial killer with a formula designed to keep his consciousness awake while his body rots in the grave.

But all drugs have unforseen side effects.

Before he can be buried, the killer wakes up.

Hungry.  Infected.  Contagious.

This is the way the world ends.  Not with a bang...but a bite.

My thoughts:


In a small town in Pennsylvania a mortician receives a body to be readied for burial.  This transfer is surrounded by secrecy and meant to stay that way - no one is to know that this body is being buried in this town.


Unfortunately, even those in the ‘know’ have no idea just what this body houses.  Unknown to the US government, this body has been subject to a supposed defunct experimentation gone horribly wrong - Lucifer 113.


Now infected with a zombie like virus, this body rises and begins to feed.  His bite transfers the virus to his victim and the virus spreads.


Officer Dez Fox wakes to another hang over, jumps into her uniform and meets her partner for a quick shot of caffeine.  They receive word that a distress call has come in from the local mortuary - so they head on over to take a look.


Dez had no idea that her hangover would be the highlight of her day.  What she and her partner find is a couple of torn up, dead bodies and a missing perp.


Then all hell breaks loose as those dead bodies begin to attack...


I enjoyed Dead of Night - but not as much as I thought I would.  


I didn’t mind that the zombie plague was a man made bio weapon and though odd to me, the fact that the zombies were consciously aware of what was going on - but unable to do anything about it, was not a deal breaker.
What bothered me the most was that the cops appeared to be so clueless.  In one spot Officer Fox shoots a zombie three or four times, hitting it in the chest - only to have it pop right back up - and wonders aloud why they won’t stop coming.


Now unless these guys have lived under a rock their entire lives - or in this world Romero does not exist and no one has ever seen a zombie movie or tv show - they should know that the kill shot has to be to the head.


If I saw someone shambling down the street, ripping into someone and eating their brains and entrails - I’d be like, zombie!   Double tap to the head.


Maybe I’m nit picking.  But being the zombie nerd that I am - I just had to point out what bugged me the most.


I give Dead of Night 2 out of 5 stars.

Product Details
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (10-25-11)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 031255219X
ISBN-13: 978-0312552190