Undead Annihilation (Undead, #1) by Matthew Doggett

Undead Annihilation by Matthew Doggett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Honestly, Undead Annihilation is a “Must Read” for end-of-the-world, we’re-all-gonna-die, zombie apocalypse story lovers!

On the night the bombs dropped and killed untold numbers, former police detective Kurt Weller was in a no-tell motel with two shady ladies and a bag of cocaine trying to forget he'd been set up and railroaded out of the police department earlier that week. But as the emergency transpired, he received a call from headquarters that all was forgiven and ordered to report back on duty immediately. Escorting the ladies home, he realizes there's more to the bombs than first thought; there are also hordes of zombies roaming the city, picking off the survivors of the blasts. Arriving at police headquarters, he finds the place under siege by a crowd of these survivors wanting answers that the brass can't give them. They don't want to listen to what Weller has observed either.

In another part of town, a vampire named Diirek had witnessed the attack from the deep shadows of a downtown alley beside a dive bar. The spectacle stopped the vampire in his tracks just as he prepared to feed on an unsuspecting bar patron who had come into the alley to relieve himself. Both he and his intended victim hustle away to find out what is going on.

While Kurt is checking on officers posted at a hot spot downtown, he sees one of the officers get thrown from the roof of one multi-story building through the air to smash through a window several stories up on a building across the street. The body is soon followed by a large, mysterious creature that glides from one roof to another. The vision is too outlandish for Weller, and he convinces himself he was seeing things.

Later as people die and reanimate and city officials refuse to accept what is going on, Diirek approaches Weller for his help (during daylight hours) to track down the creature who is killing the city's vampires. Together they seek this ancient menace and try to discover what's behind the attack, the zombies, and Weller's frame-up and dismissal from the police force.

Matthew Doggett’s new zombie apocalypse story has everything that previous books of the genre have and more! Mindless, ravening hordes of zombies? Check. Impending extinction of the population from an unknown threat? Check. The true-blue hero fighting evil all on his lonesome against impossible odds? Err…well, sort of.

We actually have two wonderful heroes. First, we have Detective Kurt Atticus Weller, a recently disgraced, hard-charging homicide detective discharged from the department for purportedly taking money from a crime scene. (“This was such bulls***!”) As his story begins, he’s partaking of some of the vices (cocaine and prostitutes) that he’d fought against all his years on the force, making up for lost time, so to speak. Weller’s is the voice of reason throughout, but his commentary is laugh out loud funny. I got looks and questions from family members I was reading near.

Hero number two is a centuries-old vampire named Diirek. (That’s Dee-rick, thank you very much!) Diirek is trying to find a much more dangerous monster than mere zombies. Something big and dark and deadly is picking off the vampires in the city one by one, and he is out to stop it. He makes for a fabulously mysterious and romantic black-clad stranger who still has human feelings and sentiments compelling him to try and rid the city of this unknown nemesis.

Action and chaos are happening on every page. The writing is exciting and entertaining with clever dialogue and plot twists. It truly is a page-turner of a book, and better still, the first entry in the new series, Undead. So, with a never-a-slow-moment pace, the coolest of cool characters, and all the apocalyptic tropes your heart could desire (but done better) to top things off, I can highly recommend UNDEAD ANNIHILATION to readers of the genre that would enjoy a more humorous take on the end of the world.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from Reedsy Discovery.

See my original review on Reedsy Discovery!