This is a book about voodoo, a hanged man, a magic gun, and zombies. On the cover, the author is compared favorably to Stephen King, and to top it off, the story takes place in Oregon, in Astoria and Portland. It sounds like it could be fun.
The back cover was probably the best part.
The characters are all fairly shallow and single-minded. They don’t have any hang-ups or flaws. Then the minor characters seem to be in place to help move the plot along, at times providing much more information and help than seems reasonable for their characters.
Not quite half-way through the book, the author decided to provide some background information on the characters. The stories were very terse, provided new skills, didn’t fit the characters, and weren’t substantiated. For instance, the marshall’s son-in-law who owns a bookstore and runs a special investigation service started out as a horse thief. The marshall turns out to be a Nez Perce indian with special abilities not mentioned previously.
When the zombies did arrive, the author didn’t build suspense or intrigue. He didn’t even have the token character there to be overwhelmed or scared off. They just appeared.
The author did have some good ideas, he just doesn’t have the skill to tell the story. This is one of very few books that I won’t finish.