Publisher: Stonegarden Publishing
Paperback (77pp)
Whether in short story, novella or novel form zombies have been prevalent in horror fiction in recent years. One only needs to look as far as popular television series The Walking Dead to see just how far this once behind closed doors genre has come.
The story takes part post-apocalypse and focuses on Sheri Foley, one of the toughest members of The Kill Crew. The Kill Crew fight against hoards of the undead – commuters – that threaten the lives of those fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to have survived.
The Kill Crew is one of the best apocalyptic zombie stories since David Moody’s Autumn. There are snippets of humour injected into the narrative that show both the human side of Sheri, and the necessity to keep on laughing in the most unenviable of situations. Sheri’s blunt, matter-of-fact tongue not only creates a very easy to relate to character, but makes her instantly likeable. The perfect characterisation continues with her circumstantial partner, Ike, a character who grows and develops as The Kill Crew progresses, and Trixie, a little girl who had to grow up far too quickly both pre and post apocalypse.
D’Lacey writes continuous action scenes with a freshness rarely exhibited in zombie fiction. His prose are succinct and to the point, and D’Lacey knows when to stop and when to embellish. Too often action-heavy fiction drags on, but this is never the case with D’Lacey. Of course to call The Kill Crew action-heavy fiction and nothing else, would be false. As The Kill Crew progresses one cannot help but feel it should have been a full novel as there are so many facets to explore, but come the last few pages as the climax and big reveal meet head on, one realises just how suitable the novella form is.
This sinister post-apocalyptic story leaves the reader laughing, crying and smiling – sometimes simultaneously. With a rapid-pace and infectious language, The Kill Crew will consume you for a couple of hours and leave you longing for more.
MICHAEL WILSON
