Delicious Spaghetti Western Zombie Fest

Wanted: Dead or Undead

by Angela Scott

*****

Wanted: Dead or Undead was such an entertaining novel. I might have to rave about this one. So, as you might guess it’s a five star read.

It was just like watching a movie, only better. From the moment I started reading it I felt like I could have been watching an old western. Only it was a western with zombies. It was so visual.

Set in the old west, the novel begins as any western might. There’s a crisis. A little boy calls to his sister for help. Immediately the sister drops everything and rushes to his aid. Little does she know, it’s already too late...

It’s heart-breaking. It’s violent. It’s a western. With zombies.

First off, the action sequences were superb. Be it on the cold unforgiving ground or in the back of a covered wagon, body parts flew and blood was splattered. True to a zombie thriller, there were scenes of dismemberment, biting and even ninja like zombie decapitation. In places it was just plain gruesome. Yet it all fit so very seamlessly into the western genre. There was plenty of gun slinging. Desperate shootouts and fingers poised on triggers. There were stone cold, poker faced death stares shared between characters and ...

Ah yes, the characters. They were such personalities. Individual, yet timeless. And as the makeshift posse of zombie plague survivors forms, the reader gets  introduced to several of them.

Elizabeth Storey is a hardened zombie killing cowgirl in search of her brother. Trace Munroe is something of a shiftless gambler with a talent for talking his way out of a situation. Both have secrets. Neither are very hard on the eyes. So when the two team up to further their own goals, it’s not surprising when a complicated romance develops. The romance is developed slowly over the course of the story, but it’s well paced.

What amazed me the most was the author’s ability to create images the reader can pull off the pages. I’m not saying there’s an excess of description. On the contrary, the visual quality was created with a perfect use of tone and skillful choice of words. I was amazed.

Currently the Kindle version is available for $4.99 on Amazon. It’s well worth every penny. I recommend it to readers in many age groups who enjoy a good story, a little humour, gore and romance.

On a personal note, while I do enjoy a few zombie thrillers a year, my experience with westerns and cross genre novels has been more limited. Of course I have read the odd Louis L’Amour, and watched movies like True Grit and The Warrior's Way. However, Wanted: Dead or Undead was just so much fun it really made me think. Could every genre be improved just by adding zombies?