Zombie Britannica by Thomas Emson

Pages (Paperback): 350 pages

Publisher: Snowbooks

Released: August 1, 2010

Description: Cassie's day as a guide at Westminster Abbey begins badly when zombies storm into the building and eat the tourists. Carrie escapes - but finds London choked with the undead. She has no idea where they came from, no idea how to stop them - all she knows is she has to race through dangerous, gore-soaked streets and find her daughter. And her day doesn't get any better...

Review: This is the fourth book I've read by Emson, there werewolves are gone, the vampires have vanished. The big bad supernatural creature haunting the UK are zombies. I do love zombies, but this book lacked the same hard hitting intensity as the previous books. Yes it was graphic and fast paced, but for some reason it didn't translate here as well as it did with his previous books.

Grade: 7 lines out of 10

The Likeness by Tana French

Pages (Paperback): 512 pages

Publisher: Penguin

Released: May 26, 2009

Description: Six months after the events of In the Woods, Detective Cassie Maddox is still trying to recover. She's transferred out of the murder squad and started a relationship with Detective Sam O'Neill, but she's too badly shaken to make a commitment to him or to her career. Then Sam calls her to the scene of his new case: a young woman found stabbed to death in a small town outside Dublin. The dead girl's ID says her name is Lexie Madison—the identity Cassie used years ago as an undercover detective—and she looks exactly like Cassie.

With no leads, no suspects, and no clue to Lexie's real identity, Cassie's old undercover boss, Frank Mackey, spots the opportunity of a lifetime. They can say that the stab wound wasn't fatal and send Cassie undercover in her place to find out information that the police never would and to tempt the killer out of hiding. At first Cassie thinks the idea is crazy, but she is seduced by the prospect of working on a murder investigation again and by the idea of assuming the victim's identity as a graduate student with a cozy group of friends.

As she is drawn into Lexie's world, Cassie realizes that the girl's secrets run deeper than anyone imagined. Her friends are becoming suspicious, Sam has discovered a generations-old feud involving the old house the students live in, and Frank is starting to suspect that Cassie's growing emotional involvement could put the whole investigation at risk. Another gripping psychological thriller featuring the headstrong protagonist we've come to love, from an author who has proven that she can deliver.

Review:  I miss Rob. I really miss Rob. *sigh* Will we ever see Rob again? The story, while interesting, isn't plausible. You'll have to suspended your disbelief in order to understand it and it has a lot of holes. This isn't a bad book and it still is beautifully written, but it just didn't have the same magic as In the Woods. It also doesn't answer some of the questions from the last book.


Grade: 7 lines out of 10