Peter Mckeirnon's Blog: Death in a Northern Town - Posts Tagged "review"
Death in a Northern Town - UK Horror Scene review
Hi all,
UK Horror Scene is a site offering reviews of anything and everything to do with UK Horror and they do an amazing job. I am honoured to have my book reviewed by the guys at UK Horror Scene and they have been very kind with their comments. Here's a link to the site and you can read their review below.
http://www.ukhorrorscene.com/
Death in a Northern Town is in reality the journal entries of John Diant (get it? Death In A Northern Town – use the capitals). It is also interspersed with entries detailing the activities of some of the other residents of Runcorn.
It is written in a very light jocular manner especially with the actual subject matter that author Peter McKeirnon is dealing with. The narrative is fast paced , full of blood and guts (and bodily fluids) and is written with such skill and talent that it makes Death In A Northern Town almost impossible to put down.
When Peter was writing Death he had the idea to set up a Facebook page and then from this he asked his readership to send their names in so they could appear in the book, maybe as zombies or perhaps killing zombies. This proved to be a great success and Peter received around 100 names and they appear in the book .Also Peter had the idea to have a promotional photo-shoot for Death and he again invited his Facebook friends to come along to the shoot dressed in full zombie attire and to use all the special effects they could. Again a massive success with almost 60 people turning up for the event , a real fan participation event and something (living so close) I sadly missed out on.
Anyway back to the book!! The characters are well written, realistic and very likeable . The character of John Diant is the glue that holds the story together and everything revolves around him but the stand-out character must be 80s Dave who I found to be hilarious and going back to my warehouse working days I could totally relate to him and was in stitches throughout with his one-liners and the true love he has for everything from that decade. Also Peter’s description of Runcorn is something that someone from a small northern town will completely relate to – just picture perfect!
I also realise that I am not being as descriptive in regards to storylines and such , but this is purely because I really don’t want to give anything away or any spoilers except to say that the chapter “Poundland” will stay with me forever and especially when I visit the said retailer and peruse their aisles of much cheapness.
Not only is Death a wonderful zombie novel it is also one of the funniest books I have ever read, the mixture of stomach turning graphic descriptions interspersed with very dark working class humour . Peter’s ability to bring “belly laugh” comedy into a serious life or death situation is wonderful and I just found reading Death In A Northern Town an absolute joy.
Death will not only appeal to the zombie fans and the gore-hounds out there but should also be enjoyed by people who love programmes like A League of Gentleman and Psychoville . Death In A Northern Town had absolutely everything for me , it made me laugh , it made me cringe, it made me wince in imagined pain and ultimately it just made me very very happy. It is a modern zombie classic with real heart and I implore all lovers of horror fiction to pick up a copy of it NOW!!
I have no reservation whatsoever in giving Peter McKeirnon’s Death In A Northern Town something I have never given a review on UKHorrorScene before….
10/10
Death in a Northern Town
UK Horror Scene is a site offering reviews of anything and everything to do with UK Horror and they do an amazing job. I am honoured to have my book reviewed by the guys at UK Horror Scene and they have been very kind with their comments. Here's a link to the site and you can read their review below.
http://www.ukhorrorscene.com/
Death in a Northern Town is in reality the journal entries of John Diant (get it? Death In A Northern Town – use the capitals). It is also interspersed with entries detailing the activities of some of the other residents of Runcorn.
It is written in a very light jocular manner especially with the actual subject matter that author Peter McKeirnon is dealing with. The narrative is fast paced , full of blood and guts (and bodily fluids) and is written with such skill and talent that it makes Death In A Northern Town almost impossible to put down.
When Peter was writing Death he had the idea to set up a Facebook page and then from this he asked his readership to send their names in so they could appear in the book, maybe as zombies or perhaps killing zombies. This proved to be a great success and Peter received around 100 names and they appear in the book .Also Peter had the idea to have a promotional photo-shoot for Death and he again invited his Facebook friends to come along to the shoot dressed in full zombie attire and to use all the special effects they could. Again a massive success with almost 60 people turning up for the event , a real fan participation event and something (living so close) I sadly missed out on.
Anyway back to the book!! The characters are well written, realistic and very likeable . The character of John Diant is the glue that holds the story together and everything revolves around him but the stand-out character must be 80s Dave who I found to be hilarious and going back to my warehouse working days I could totally relate to him and was in stitches throughout with his one-liners and the true love he has for everything from that decade. Also Peter’s description of Runcorn is something that someone from a small northern town will completely relate to – just picture perfect!
I also realise that I am not being as descriptive in regards to storylines and such , but this is purely because I really don’t want to give anything away or any spoilers except to say that the chapter “Poundland” will stay with me forever and especially when I visit the said retailer and peruse their aisles of much cheapness.
Not only is Death a wonderful zombie novel it is also one of the funniest books I have ever read, the mixture of stomach turning graphic descriptions interspersed with very dark working class humour . Peter’s ability to bring “belly laugh” comedy into a serious life or death situation is wonderful and I just found reading Death In A Northern Town an absolute joy.
Death will not only appeal to the zombie fans and the gore-hounds out there but should also be enjoyed by people who love programmes like A League of Gentleman and Psychoville . Death In A Northern Town had absolutely everything for me , it made me laugh , it made me cringe, it made me wince in imagined pain and ultimately it just made me very very happy. It is a modern zombie classic with real heart and I implore all lovers of horror fiction to pick up a copy of it NOW!!
I have no reservation whatsoever in giving Peter McKeirnon’s Death In A Northern Town something I have never given a review on UKHorrorScene before….
10/10
Death in a Northern Town
Death in a Northern Town
Details about zombie horror / dark comedy Death in a Northern Town by Peter Mckeirnon.
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