Walking Dead

by Peter Dickinson

This brilliant crime novel by CWA Gold Dagger winner Peter Dickinson is set in the Caribbean, where a researcher becomes trapped like a rodent in a maze

When it comes to his rats, David Foxe is an expert. He decides when they eat, when they exercise, when they take their medicine--and when they die. For the sake of the Company, he performs all manner of experiments on his helpless subjects, testing various drugs designed to improve the animals' nature. After a particularly grueling series of tests, he is sent on a working vacation to the Southward Islands. This Caribbean paradise is ruled by the shadowy dictator Dr. Trotter, who is said to possess demonic power and whose mother is rumored to be a witch. Foxe may be a man of science, but he now finds himself in a world governed by the occult.

When a dead body is discovered in his island laboratory, Foxe becomes the key suspect and is taken prisoner. The only way to clear his name is to carry out experiments on his fellow inmates. Amid radical insurgents, crazed prisoners, and a crumbling dictatorship, Foxe must now escape this most dangerous experiment of all.

Genres: Mystery, Horror, Crime, Fiction

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL was a prolific English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories.

Peter Dickinson lived in Hampshire with his second wife, author Robin McKinley. He wrote more than fifty novels for adults and young readers. He won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Award twice, and his novel The Blue Hawk won The Guardian Award in 1975.

Reviews

[Lucas Wold · Rating 2 out of 5]

No undead and very racist 🤮

[William Leight · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Walking Dead", being a Peter Dickinson mystery, is clever and well-written, with interesting characters and settings and none of the well-worn cliches of the genre. The main feature of this one is the tricky balancing act that Dickinson attempts to pull off. He wants to present a magical system with a family resemblance to voodoo (but originating from the imaginary Southward Islands, located somewhere in the Caribbean) from a stereotypically rational, Western viewpoint, incarnated by the protagonist, David Foxe, an English scientist. Thus, he carefully avoids directly suggesting that there could possibly be anything more to what's going on then some amateur herbalism and auto-suggestion. However, when a series of accidents makes it appear that Foxe has magical powers, and then his entanglement in Island politics makes using those powers a matter of life and death, Dickinson is equally careful to avoid presenting alternative explanations for what happens. Everything is given to us straight, and Foxe's continued assertions that he doesn't believe in any of it only serve as a sort of back-handed endorsement. Dickinson also avoids the trap of implying that Foxe's powers are somehow intrinsic to Foxe, and hence can be chalked up to his strength of character or scientific training: instead, they stem from one of his experimental rats. Does all of this add up to something convincing? Dickinson is a smart enough writer to know not to give the reader the chance to stop and think about it. As any bicycle rider knows, it's much easier to balance if you keep your forward momentum, and the plot of "Walking Dead" makes sure never to slow down too much. I'm not sure if the book quite makes it into the top tier of Dickinson -- "The Poison Oracle", which is very similar in some ways, is probably better -- but it's still well worth reading.

[Jerry MeCaskey · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are two worlds, the seen and the unseen—the scientific and the spiritual, the European and the non-European, and more—and this novel makes much of how people often are unaware that they live in more than one of these worlds at a time.

I think the writing is terrific, and the tale kept me wondering what would happen next, which was fun. It’s less a mystery and more an adventure novel, as the mysteries are very much in the thinking of the main character.

An enjoyable read!

[Wrenn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't even finish it

[Masha Toit · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought provoking book. Set on a Caribbean island: A scientist is drawn, against his will, into working for a dictator. At first the scientist is quite unappealing but as the story progresses we get under his skin and start understanding him and sympathising with him. This book explores issues such as superstition vs science, the ethics of experimenting on living beings, and the different ways that "goodness" can manifest.

A book without a straightforward moral message. Thought provoking and quite disturbing.