The Return Man by V.M. ZitoMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Time taken to read - 3 days
Publisher - Hodder & Stoughton
Blurb from Goodreads
The outbreak tore the USA in two. The east remains a safe haven. The west has become a ravaged wilderness, known by survivors as the Evacuated States. It is here that Henry Marco makes his living. Hired by grieving relatives, he tracks down the dead and delivers peace.
Now Homeland Security wants Marco for a mission unlike any other. He must return to California, where the apocalypse began. Where a secret is hidden. And where his own tragic past waits to punish him again.
But in the wastelands of America, you never know who - or what - is watching you.
My Review
A zombie novel with a bit of a twist, this one is purely centered around America, the West is abandoned barring those reanimated with the virus. The East is a safe haven where the survivors are residing and living in safety. Henry Marco is in the West with the walking dead and making a living by bringing them peace after being hired by their family. His business partner is in the East and deals with the contracts, money and people whilst Henry does the dirty work. Henry has a personal agenda and is on the lookout for his wife whom he lost during the in initial outbreak, four years ago. As always there is corruption and Homeland Security makes Marco an offer he can't refuse, to go into the heart of the outbreak, risk life and limb to complete his mission.
There is a lot going on in this wee story, it starts off with Henry tracking a relative for someone on the other side and we get an introduction into what he does. Henry is haunted by the fact he finds others relatives but can't find his own wife, this is what keeps him in the West and in constant danger. He then meets up with Kheng Wu - Kenny, although Henry mostly calls him Wu, they make a great team although Wu is not all he seems although the reader knows all along his secret.
There is a lot of action and the zombie scenes kicked my heart rate up a bit just about every time. It has the zombie theme at the heart of the story but also love, devotion, friendship, trust, betrayal and corruption. I really enjoyed this and it was my first zombie read in a wee while. I have added the next in the series on to my wish list as although this was my first time with this author I did quite enjoy it and would like to read more about the characters in this story. 4/5 for me this time, I did like it, it has good pace however I am fussy with zombie stories and there was one or two wee things that didn't bring it right up to the five star mark.
Hi Lainy,
ReplyDeleteAlthough 'Zombies' are genre that I know nothing about, this is another great review and tells me everything I need to know to make my decision about whether to buy or not ... and following our earlier discussion ... just look how relevant that cover art is to the book's premise!
I always like to check out new to me authors and books and you mentioned that the author had written another book in the series. I discovered that there are two other titles by this author, however both are novellas or short stories, so that kind of made my decision for me, about not being really interested in pursuing this as a series I might like to try. Here is the link to the titles if you want to take a peek ...
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/z/v-m-zito/
Have a great weekend and thanks for sharing your thoughts. Maybe one day I shall venture into your zombie world, if you can think of a book which might be a good starting point for me, then please let me know!
Yvonne.
I'm not really into zombie fiction, but I do find myself being drawn to it when I read reviews like this! :)
ReplyDeleteI love a good zombie story and this sounds great. I'll have to look it up.
ReplyDelete