Book Review: “That the Dead May Rest” & “Knock Out”
Posted: September 26, 2025 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Crime, Dark fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Paranormal, Speculative Fiction, Thriller, Zombie Fiction | Tags: Book Review, Karen A. Wyle, Knock Out, Mia Gold, mystery, Paranormal, Speculative Fiction, That the Dead May Rest, Thriller, Writing to be Read, Zombies 4 Comments
About That the Dead May Rest
After a life of peril and fear, Millie has reached the peace, beauty, and security of the afterlife. But one day, when she is performing her glad duty of welcoming a new spirit, that spirit recoils from her in horror — because her body had become a zombie, and had brutally killed him.
As more spirits make the same terrible discovery, they ask themselves, and each other: is this somehow my fault? When will it end? And finally: what can we do? Is there something we can do to stop this?
And are there people among the living who can help them to do it?
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/That-Dead-Rest-Karen-Wyle-ebook/dp/B0FLRK4VC1
My Review of That the Dead May Rest
I received a digital review copy of That the Dead May Rest, by Karen A. Wyle through Sandra’s Book Club review program. All opinions stated here are my own.
This multiple P.O.V. story has a lot of telling, rather than showing, and the number of characters made it difficult for me to relate with any of them, or even keep track of who is who. I had to stop reading and pull out of the story multiple times to go back and figure out which character’s head I’m in at the moment. This made it difficult to really care about what happens to them, as well. I think the only way this tale could be told is from multiple P.O.V.s, so the author had the right idea, but as a reader, I needed to be able to invest in at least one or two of the characters, and I didn’t get to know them well enough to be able to do that. I didn’t feel the character’s fear, or grief, or pain, but I knew they were feeling these things because the characters expressed how awful these feelings were for them.
I believe the cover was what drew me to this book. At first, I thought I had picked up a typical zombie story, but this book is definitely not that. Although, there are zombies, the characters, alive or dead, just talk about the zombie attacks rather than being attacked themselves. In fact, zombies only make appearances a few times. But we know they are there, because the characters tell us they are. That may have made it more difficult for me to take the gravity of the situation more seriously.
It actually isn’t a bad story line, but the author could have done so much more with it. The ghosts are quite disturbed when they discover their former bodies are rising from their graves and attacking people. The living are slow to make the connection between what’s happening and zombie activity, and at first write it off as ‘mysterious creature attacks’. If I could have felt the anger of living characters who lost loved ones to the attacks, or been able to feel the horror at learning the character’s former body had done such a hideous thing, I could have rooted for them and cheered as they came closer to reaching their goals had they behaved in a manner that communicated their feelings instead of just telling me about it.
The ghosts/spirits reach out to the living, and they join forces to find a solution. The afterlife should not be so stressful and something must be done. But, what is causing these vile creatures, and how do you stop a zombie epidemic? There are several ideas from the members of the group, both alive and dead. This is the tale of their quest to help the living to live and allow the dead to rest.
While the story line is original, the multiple points of view made it a bit confusing, and I had difficulty getting into the story and relating with the characters. I give That the Dead May Rest three quills.
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About Knock Out
In this action mystery thriller series by #1 bestseller Mia Gold (whose books have over 5,000 five-star ratings), Holly Hands, 29, single mom and former boxing pro turned Repo Woman, lives in the bad slice of Baltimore and dreams of getting the medical treatment her daughter desperately needs. But when she discovers a dead body in her trunk during a routine repo job, Holly has to tap into her fighting skills to solve the mystery. Hunt down the killer, and save her from a wrongful conviction that would take her away from her daughter…
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Knockout-Holly-Hands-Cozy-Mystery-Book-ebook/dp/B08K9CYX9Q
My Review of Knock Out
I purchased Knock Out, by Mia Gold as a Bookbub bargain on a day when I felt like reading out of my norm as an impulse buy. All opinions stated here are my own.
A quick glance at the title led me to believe the book was about boxing. Boxing is one of my least favorite sports, so the boxing world always feels quite alien to me. I surprised myself when I purchased this book, and I’m glad that I did. Knock Out is book 1 in Mia Gold’s Holly Hands Mystery series.
I was pleasantly surprised when I started reading, to discover that Holly Hands is a single mother and ex-boxer, who has been suspended for taking a dive in the ring because her daughter needs a series of expensive operations. Our heroine did something wrong for all the right reasons, so we can empathize with her when she discovers it was all for nothing. The loan shark who agreed to pay for her to lose is nowhere to be found, her boxing career is down the toilet, and she still can’t pay for the procedures her daughter, Olivia desperately needs.
In her search for the lying loan shark, she turns to an acquaintance from school, who has pull in all the right circles, and he agrees to help her find him if she’ll come to work for him as a ‘ repo agent’, offering the suspended boxer another opportunity to get the money for the needed operations. On her first job repossessing a car, she gets pulled over and police find a body in the trunk, and they are looking at her as a murder suspect. She must find the real killer to clear her name, sending her on a mission looking for clues to what really happened to the murder victim.
I really liked Gold’s complex characters, like Holly Hands, the fighter, who was raised in a family of fighters and managed to hold her own against her two brothers, yet has a soft spot in her heart for big sad looking dogs and her eight-year-old daughter. At the same time, she’s a struggling single mother with an ill child, who will do whatever it takes to heal Olivia and give her a better life. As a repo agent, she walks a fine line between legal and illegal activity as she maneuvers her way through the local criminal elements, and in her spare time she searches for a killer, coming up against some dangerous people along the way. You can’t help but like her, and she’d a fun character that you want to root for. Holly strikes me as a female James Rockford, (James Garner’s character in The Rockford Files); always falling into unexpected situations and coming up with solutions by the skin of her teeth.
No spoilers, but to say that by the end of the book, the author had each subplot wrapped up nicely while wrapping up with a hint that finding the lying loan shark may be just around the corner in the second book in the series. And since I had been rooting for Holly throughout the entire book, I definitely wanted to see that main storyline through to the end. I may have to buy the second book, so this book does what every series writer hopes for: readers to want more.
A wonderful amateur detective mystery. I give Knock Out five quills.
About Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.
Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review on the Book Review tab above.
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Book Review: Nights of the Living Dead
Posted: June 30, 2023 Filed under: Anthology, Book Review, Books, Dark Fantasy, Horror, Review, Short Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Stories, Zombie Fiction | Tags: Anthology, Book Review, George A. Romero, horror, Jonathan Maberry, Nights of the Living Dead, Undead, Writing to be Read, Zombies 2 Comments
About The Book
“Horror fans will find plenty to love” (AudioFile) in “this masterly collection of tales” (Library Journal). The genre’s most important writers — including Jonathan Maberry, Neal Shusterman, Chuck Wendig, Mira Grant, and more — revisit the classic 1968 film to provide 19 chilling, gruesome stories that will have you listening with the lights on… Performed by a talented cast of narrators!
Purchase Link: https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/nights-of-the-living-dead-by-jonathan-maberry-and-george-a-romero
My Review
If you’re in the mood for a good zombie-fest, Nights of the Living Dead, edited by Jonathan Maberry and Oscar Romero might just be the audio anthology for you. Zombies are having feeding frenzies in all their ghoulish glory, and it’s open season on the walking dead. Edited by the godfather of zombie madness, George A. Romero and the ring master of classic horror, Jonathan Maberry, this is short fiction collection that just keeps coming with flesh eating terror that refuses to die.
I listened to the audio book version, and multiple narrators were used to bring each story in this anthology to life, making each one not just readings, but true performances. There is something to please every lover of zombie stories everywhere in this collection, but the ones which stood out for me were:
- A Dead Girl Named Sue, by Craig E. Engler, where small town grudges turn into a macabre plan for vengeance.
- In that Quiet Earth, by Mike Carey, is a zombie love story not soon forgotten.
- Dead Man’s Curve, by Joe R. Landsdale, where a girl is just as tough as the guys, maybe tougher, and she can drive better, too.
- Orbital Decay, by David Wellington, is the ultimate space zombie story.
- Jimmy J. Baxter’s Last Best Day on Earth, by John Skipp, where a bigoted fool gets his just desserts.
- Lone Soldier, by Jonathan Maberry, where a soldier, left for dead, learns to survive by putting his combat skills to good use.
- Live and On the Scene, by Keith de Candido, where a reporter covers the apocalypse a little too closely.
- You Can Stay All Day, by Mira Grant, where a day at the zoo takes on a whole new meaning.
- Deadliner, by Neil and Brandon Shusterman, takes you to a real live, or at least undead, zombie circus.
If you can’t get enough of the zombie apocalypse, then settle in as the masters of horror and speculative fiction who contributed here, take you to the land of the undead, again and again. Featuring stories by Romero and Maberry, in addition to horror greats such as Kieth R.A. DeCandido, Carrie Ryan, John A. Russo, Brian Keene, Chuck Wendigo to name a few. It’s open season on the undead, and these zombie hunters are pulling out all the stops, with blood, guts and brains galore.
Zombie fans everywhere will want to be sure and catch this classic tradition collection of zombie fiction. I give the audio edition of Nights of the Living Dead five quills.
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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.
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Bowlesian! – Zombie Crave Human Exceptionalism
Posted: October 5, 2022 Filed under: Bowlesian!, Humor, Short Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Stories, Zombie Fiction | Tags: Bowlesian!, Jeff Bowles, Short Fiction, Short Stories, Speculative Fiction, Writing to be Read, Zombies 3 Comments
Note: This is a just a fun little flash piece to get you in the mood for October. Happy Halloween, everyone!
Zombie Crave Human Exceptionalism
by Jeff Bowles
Dr. Everett J. Edmunds raised his zombies from nothing but spare parts and voodoo. He believed his living dead should crave the best, most exceptional brains. Therefore, in procuring their daily meals, he kidnapped only lawyers and doctors, novelists and scientists, Nobel lauriates, Olympians and the like. Late nights he’d strap these unfortunates to the chair in his subterranean laboratory and read them poetry whilst playing an old Bach vinyl.
“Why, Dr. Browning, you look pale,” he might say. “Perhaps some electrolytes before my darlings feast? Malaise in the system is no good at dinner time.”
And of course, upon devouring each subject, his zombies gained further appreciation for human exceptionalism, thereby endowing themselves with heightened intelligence, communication faculties, charm and wit. This was the theory, at least. Everett had found hard clinical proof difficult to come by.
One evening, as the sun set on his small, weed-infested home, his door buzzer rang, interrupting an attempt to teach his horde Calculus. Everett swore and hushed the zombies, climbing the steps into the house proper. All his life he’d been an achiever, which was why his bookcases and mantle were lined with trophies, awards, and certificates of excellence. The medical community valued his intellect, but people wouldn’t understand his true calling. Perhaps his walk-in freezer was full of arms and hearts and torsos, but he was no cold-blooded killer; rather Edmund was a brilliant scientist, the most exceptional brain of his generation.
He opened the door with a prolonged, rusty squeek. There stood the love of his life, the one who got away, a half-zombie named Camilla. If regret had a voice, it’d be soft and sweet as hers.
She cooed a loving, “Braaaaains!”
To which Everett replied, “My darling, you’ve come back to me!”
“Brains!”
“Of course, my love. Come inside. Your horde misses you, as do I.”
She followed dutifully, through the house and back down into the laboratory. The rest of the horde would eat him as soon as look at him, but not his Camilla. She’d been so beautiful in life, his favorite nurse at the hospital. The car crash that claimed her life hadn’t been entirely accidental.
From the book of voodoo spells he’d purchased on Amazon, he’d selected a special hex he used just once: the half-zombie, or Death’s First Kiss. Though her skin had rotted and her jawbone flopped like the useless handle of a can opener, Camilla was still the most beautiful woman Dr. Edmunds had ever seen. He embraced her. She smelled wonderful … ish.
“Dearest, why don’t you climb back in the cage where you belong? Your brothers and sisters would love the chance to pick your–”
“Braaaaains!”
“What do you mean they won’t like you anymore? Have you really changed so much?”
Camilla indicated she had, and then proceeded to describe her adventures in the world of the living. Apparently, she’d tried to go back to school, and had even attended her nephew’s bar mitzvah, a ghastly affair which had seen her own family chase her into the night. The doctor opened the cage door cautiously, sensing a lull in his zombies’ aggression.
“Dear heart, please step inside,” he said. “When you ran away, I lost a piece of myself.”
“Brains!” she said, which translated loosely as, I’m wearing a wire, Everett.
“What do you mean you’re wearing a wire?” he asked.
“Brrrrrains!”—What do you mean, what do I mean? The police have already arrived, and you are going to jail for what you’ve done. It took me years to realize it, but you’re the monster, not me. Now don’t struggle.
The door to the laboratory burst open. Waves of gun-toting police filed in, barking for him to hit the floor and put his hands behind his back. Dr. Edmunds refused. Though he always suspected this day might come, he somehow thought he’d be the one to betray himself, not his dear Camilla.
Everett ran into the cage, slammed the door, pressed in tightly with his zombies, and bellowed, “Take me now, my beauties!”
But his zombies ignored him. In fact, they paid him no more attention than Camilla paid basic rules of variative syntax. This, of course, was the real tragedy. For if they didn’t want to eat his delicious, fertile, exceptional brain … well maybe he wasn’t so exceptional after all. The police urged Camilla to yank him from the cage. She did so and they placed him in handcuffs.
“That’s the way the cookie crumbles, doc,” said one of the officers, brutish man with coffee stains on his uniform.
“How dare you!” Everett spat. “If they ever ate an imbecile like you, I’d burn my diplomas!”
The cops led him from his home. After reading his miranda rights on the street, they gathered around their police cruisers and watched Night of the Living Dead on a smart phone. Camilla wept softly from afar. Movie looked so fake.
Braaaains.
END
Jeff Bowles is a science fiction and horror writer from the mountains of Colorado. The best of his outrageous and imaginative work can be found in God’s Body: Book One – The Fall, Godling and Other Paint Stories, Fear and Loathing in Las Cruces, and Brave New Multiverse. He has published work in magazines and anthologies like PodCastle, Tales from the Canyons of the Damned, the Threepenny Review, and Dark Moon Digest. Jeff earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at Western State Colorado University. He currently lives in the high-altitude Pikes Peak region, where he dreams strange dreams and spends far too much time under the stars. Jeff’s new novel, Love/Madness/Demon, is available on Amazon now!
Check out Jeff Bowles Central on YouTube – Movies – Video Games – Music – So Much More!
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