The living dead walk the earth and only one small town stands in their way. In Clifton Falls, a farming company's risky experiment unleashes a chemical fertilizer that brings the dead back to life. When the first zombie attacks, two women out walking in the forest become infected and the virus spreads quickly. Police officers are called to a house where a woman who died months earlier is seen walking and the local hospital begins to fill with the dead. With the undead growing in numbers, will the officers be able to contain them before they reach the cemetery?
This was a really enjoyable novel that has a lot to like about it. One of the better elements of this one is the strong central setup involving the creation of the zombie horde and the effect it has on the town. The experiment to create the new fertilizer product in the middle of a series of of extracurricular activities in the rest of the community, with bank robbers trying to get to safety and the other random citizens that are caught up in the outbreak, creates an intriguing storyline with just enough to get an idea on the kinds of characters presented here so that the later horror and injections of comedy come off nicely. They're all fun enough to follow, so the strong action scenes here make for a fun enough time to keep this one going.
On top of that, the series of zombie efforts here are impressive, managing to get a lot right here. The setup is quite simple and gets quite enjoyable with the idea of the fertilizer product coming into place as a regeneration piece for the zombies and getting the infected couple as a way to spread it throughout the rest of the town. This brings out the rapidly spreading outbreak and how these defined characters come about trying to stop the creatures with a solid series of encounters that offer up some great gore-filled encounters and descriptive imagery that help create a thrilling atmosphere. It does end on a cliffhanger considering its placement in the series as book one so the story is abrupt in terms of being read as a standalone effort, but it's not a huge factor all that much.
4.5/5