After Malcolm’s mother dies, he’s determined to carry out her final request to bury her in the town she was born in over a thousand miles away. His sister-in-law Violet, who’s he’s in love with, comes along, as well as a pair of Irish twins hired by his mother before she died. It starts out delightfully weird with a stalker wearing a raven mask and something hiding in the roots of a tree. It quickly becomes a road trip from hell as zombie/vampire-like creatures try to stop his mother from being buried.

The story takes place in 1956, although I often forgot this as the time period doesn’t come up that often. Malcom is a Korean war veteran. He fights off hordes of monsters, so it feels like more of an action story than a horror story.

I like that the biggest weakness of the undead monsters is they can’t resist stopping to eat bystanders, which slows them down in their pursuit of our heroes. Although, if they are ancient and their appetite really is this ravenous, humans should have become extinct long ago.

I like that Malcolm both loves and hates his mother. Conflicting emotions like this about loved ones are realistic. We also meet Malcolm’s siblings and the family dynamic feels real. I really enjoyed this one.