Road Kill

Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. #2.5

by Kevin J. Anderson

When Dan Shamble, Zombie PI wakes up in a coffin in the back of a semi truck, he knows it's not going to be a good day. He has to escape, figure out what's going on, foil a black-market blood-smuggling ring—and make sure he's not dead on arrival!

Genres: Zombies, Mystery, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Humor, Horror, Adult

49 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 15, 2013

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[Nils Krebber · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit unremarkable, I read this during the week and honestly can't remember much about the twist. Only that the beginning conundrum (wking up in a coffin without knowing why) was not very convincing, even for Dan Shamble stories.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short story. Quick read with classic storyline.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy this character. It’s a bunch of monster and undead puns and a fun read. This was a short novella and a quick fun read.

[Linda (The Arizona Bookstagrammer) · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Road Kill” (Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. #2.5) by Kevin J. Anderson. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Humorous Zombie Novella series. Location: In a big rig truck heading away from the Unnatural Quarter of a fictional big city in the USA. Time: approximately 2013. NOTE: This is so short that it’s more like a long story, but there’s a bonus after the story ends.-
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When The Big Uneasy changed earth, legendary creatures and unnaturals returned to the known world. Human Dan Chambeaux was a private investigator. He was happy to take cases from unnatural creatures- their cases were much more interesting than his usual divorce cases. Then he was shot in the head while investigating the poisoning death of his girlfriend. He’s now a zombie private investigator, known affectionately as Dan Shamble, and his poisoned girlfriend Sheyenne is a ghost and receptionist for his firm.-
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Dan wakes up nailed into a coffin in the back of a moving big rig truck. His short term memory is foggy. Worse than that, his beloved Fedora hat is gone. As his memory slowly comes back, he remembers he is investigating the infamous Ma Hemoglobin’s black market blood smuggling ring. Then the truck blows up...To share anymore would be to tell the whole story.-
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After the short novella/long story ends, there is an extensive and descriptive list of other books by Kevin J. Anderson, Frank Herbert (Dune) and Frank’s son Brian Herbert. I got several new ideas for my never-ending TBR list from this section.-
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Kevin J. Anderson is a favorite author of mine. In his space series, I’m usually commenting they are too long. In the Dan Shamble series, my complaint is they are too short! I want more back stories and character development for Dan and Sheylenne, and friendly cop McGoo! It’s 3 stars from me for this humorous parody of hard boiled private investigators.🌵📚👩🏼‍🦳”

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the humor of the Dan Shamble books and have read the first two novels. I knew this was a short story going into it, but I felt more could have been done to capitalize on the confusion and disorientation Shamble experiences when he awakens in the back of the semi.

In the end, for the setup, I felt it was anti-climactic but I'll continue reading more short and long works featuring Dan Shamble and co.

Shamble On!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great story featuring Dan Shamble - I had read the first book in the Dan Shamble, Zombie PI series (Death Warmed Over) and quite liked the humor. This short story featuring Dan and a few of the regular characters from that series gives me a hankering to check out the other two novels in Anderson's series.

[Tristan Wolf · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story itself is well up to Shamble quality, and I enjoyed it. My beef is with a 112 page (in my edition) short book where the story ends on p.55, with the rest of the book being back-cover descriptions of just about every book Mr. Anderson has published. It would be rather like me offering a brief review of a book, then padding it with descriptions of my own (or friends') works. (Please take note that I won't stoop to that, despite the temptation.)

I like a good story, and this is a good one. I find myself echoing Agent Smith in The Matrix, with a long, eerie, only-Hugo-Weaving-can-deliver-it line of, "Mr. Anderson..."

[Mo · Rating 2 out of 5]

So short it read like a summary of a case.

[Charl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, quick read.

[Joan Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven't tried any of these, this is a quickie and will give you a taste of this zombie PI and his friends. Fun. light and easy.

[John Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute

Amusing unnoticed too long. The beginning of the Dan Shambles zombie private eye series. Worth the cost. Enjoy the other stories!

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a grim story that had more crime than humour, but an ending that brightened up the things. Liked it.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wild ride with Dan Shamble, Zombie PI! This short story, which takes place between books 2 and 3, Unnatural Acts and Hair Raising, was a quick read but highly entertaining nonetheless.

When Dan awakens to find himself nailed into a coffin in the back of a semi truck, not recalling any of the details of what went down and how he got there, he knows it's going to be another one of those days!

[Karin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm giving it two stars for the simple fact that I was disappointed that the ebook was 112 pages, but only 55 of those were actual story. The rest was a catalogue of Kevin J. Anderson's other books.

The story itself was alright, but was more like a footnote, and less like a short story.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was a good story but I wish a little more could have happened even for a short story. it's really just the one scene when there was more that could have gone in here. but I did enjoy what there was of it and would recommend it to my friends.

[Jason Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

entertaining story. I will read more of this series.

[☀Rachael☀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick fun read!

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quirky take on a PI theme! If you like scify you'll probably like it.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. First time I've read anything from this author, this super short story was a fun and entertaining read. Made me somewhat curious about the other Dan Shamble books.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between three and four stars, just a very simple, but competent short story in the Dan Shambles series. One for the completists!

[David Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was short and it was good, but not the best book I ever read. It was a quick read on the train and that is what I wanted at the time.