cover image Jailbait Zombie

Jailbait Zombie

Mario Acevedo, . . Eos, $14.95 (353pp) ISBN 978-0-06-156714-8

Felix Gomez, vampire PI, tackles his gritty fourth adventure (after 2008’s The Undead Kama Sutra ), a blend of hard-boiled noir and contemporary horror. This time around, Felix is sent by his bosses at the Araneum, a “worldwide network of vampires,” to destroy a nest of zombies outside of Denver and put their creator out of business. On the zombies’ trail, Felix meets Phaedra Nardoni, the 16-year-old responsible for his hallucinatory flashbacks to his days as a soldier in Iraq. Phaedra, who is dying of Huntington’s chorea, threatens Felix with more hallucinations unless he turns her into a vampire. Felix’s moral dilemma is cut short when the zombie reanimator captures him and explains his plans for world domination and “zombies in space.” Fans of splattery Hollywood-style horror will have fun with this tale of violence and mayhem. (Mar.)