Book Talk Tuesday: Pay Me in Flesh

 

I just read something completely out of the ordinary, in every sense of the word.

It’s out of the ordinary of what I usually read.

It’s out of the ordinary of what’s being published.

It’s out of the ordinary of what the author usually writes.

It’s out of the ordinary in its capacity to combine horror, humor, and heart.

 

It’s about Mallory Caine, a defense attorney by day and a brain-eating zombie by night.

Yep.

I read it.

I even liked it.

I read it because the author is a friend and he trusted me enough to send me a preview copy to read and tell others about. If I liked it.

I’m not gonna lie.

It was tough to get into. Mallory’s craving for flesh, in particular brains, creeped me out. I don’t read horror. I don’t watch horror movies. The closest thing I’ve watched or read is the Twilight series and Harry Potter. Neither of which has zombies.

But because I know and like the author (K. Bennett is a pseudonym for James Scott Bell) and I’ve enjoyed his other work, I hung in there and kept reading. 

This is from Jim’s blog announcement :

TAGLINE:

In L.A., practicing law can be hell. Especially if you’re dead.

PITCH:

In an increasingly hellacious L.A., zombie lawyer Mallory Caine defends a vampire hooker accused of the crime Mallory herself committed, even as a zombie-killer closes in and the love of her former life comes back as the Deputy DA she must oppose. And as Lucifer himself begins setting up L.A. as his headquarters for a new attack on heaven and earth, Mallory slowly discovers she may be the one who has to stop him.

The book has humor, lots of it. Mallory gets the irony in being a zombie attorney.

There is a bit of horror. Enough for the horror fan to be happy. Just a tad too much for the non-horror fan to appreciate, but the worst of it is in the first third. After that, either I was desensitized or the horror was truly lessened.

It’s full of heart. Mallory struggles with God and wonders what (and who) consigned her to the undead life. She gets a glimpse of truth at the end, with a nice setup to the next book in the series.

I’m glad I stuck with it. I’ll even read Mallory’s next adventure. I believe Jim will show God at further work in Mallory’s unlife and I look forward to reading how He will redeem even a zombie.

Pay Me In Flesh is available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.

If you read it, let me know what you think. Really.