The Return Man

So this has been on my TBR pile since around 2013. I joined Worldswithoutend.com and it was one of the books listed under the "Zombie" sub-genre heading, but life is short and flesh is weak and I was drawn to thousands of other books.... Until January of 2021 when it was again the focus of my attentions.

There are many levels of zombie fiction, and I love them (almost) all. I do not care how poorly written, how unbelievable the plot /character development, I enjoy a good old fashioned zombie romp. But when the zombie story is actually well written and engrossing, I am in my brains-loving element. The Return Man is one such book.

The characters are well developed and the storyline is enjoyable. Henry Marco is a completely likable character, but is not without his flaws. The travel across the Western US to get to California was a little unrealistic. Why didn't the nefarious government agency just air drop a gaggle of zombie fighting commando's, or at the very least Harry and his ops team into the hot zone to retrieve the needed samples? After all, they had a very strong idea where they were. But, of course why didn't the Eagles just fly Frodo to Mt. Doom so could could just drop in the ring? Because that would be a very short story indeed, and the journey is the thing in the end.

When the book ended I immediately looked up to see if there were any other books in the series. Unfortunately there appear to be only two short stories and one appears out of print. This si disappointing because I would have loved to spend more time in Harry Marco's zombie infested world.