Book Review: The Year of Eating Dangerously by K. Bennett

The Year of Eating Dangerously by K. Bennett

The Year of Eating Dangerously is the follow-up book to Pay Me in Flesh, a novel about Los Angeles defense attorney-turned-zombie Mallory Caine. The first book was entertaining, striking a good balance between comedy, mystery, noir, and horror. This book retains all the same elements and does a good job though it is a little darker.

Mallory Caine is now defending her father, a zombie-slaying zealot who charged with killing an ex-cop by chopping his head off with a sword. Mallory knows the act was self-defense because the ex-cop was a zombie ready to kill, but can she persuade the judge and jury to go along? Meanwhile, a ten-year old boy, Jaime, comes to her saying his mom is trying to kill him. Mallory's undead heart goes out to the boy, though his situation is a lot more complicated than it seems. He's part of an ongoing conspiracy to bring about the rule of Satan over the earth, starting in Los Angeles. She has to go through some legal shenanigans to get custody of him and some fantasy violence to keep him safe. All the while she is trying to find out who had her killed and brought back as a zombie.

The legal scenes are entertaining but wildly improbable (for example, the ghost of actor Darren McGavin provides expert witness testimony thanks to information he learned when he starred as Kolchak: The Night Stalker in the 1970s). In the middle of the book, she goes on a vigilante eating spree where she starts killing and consuming some higher-level criminals because they are just too evil and getting away with it. That part was a little too dark and too humorless to fit comfortably with the rest of the book. The big confrontation at the end doesn't really resolve anything, other than intrenching Mallory in her quest to save her soul and her city from the forces of evil.

The book is a fun, light read for the most part. I'd recommend it.

Book Review: Pay Me in Flesh by K. Bennett

Pay Me in Flesh (Mallory Caine, Zombie at Law #1) by K. Bennett

I've heard a lot of bad jokes about lawyers through the years, especially from lawyers themselves. It's a profession that gets a lot of attention if not always a lot of respect. In all the iterations of the 21st century zombie craze, it seems logical that someone would write a book about a zombie lawyer. Not a lawyer who defends zombies, but who is a zombie herself. Meet Mallory Caine, zombie at law.

Now, in this version of zombies, apparently she doesn't look like a zombie. When we first meet her, she is being held in contempt by a judge. As they discuss the matter in his chambers, he makes a very aggressive pass at her. She shows a lot of restraint, not eating him then and there. She threatens to blow the whistle on him but he tells her everyone will think she made it up. He sends her to lockup to cool off.

She's bailed out by her ex-boyfriend, prosecuting attorney Aaron Argula, who conveniently shows up and wants to get back with her. She would be interested except for this little personality flaw she's developed, namely the taste for human brains. Plus, he dumped her back in the day so things still need to get smoothed out.

Mallory has a crummy office across from a dubious P.I. She defends many a dubious client, some of whom do not pay, especially when she doesn't win the case. But a deal's a deal, and like Shylock, she eventually gets her pound of flesh from the occasional deadbeat client. Mallory's other source of nourishment is dressing up as a hooker and leading men off to their doom in quiet areas of town. One such fellow happens to be an undercover cop. She doesn't know it at the time. In a nice twist, she defends the girl who is accused of killing the cop. That girl is a fellow streetwalker Mallory knows. And, she's a vampire! The prosecuting attorney is of course Aaron, who has nothing special about him aside from his devastating good looks and his super-smart (and probably super-delicious) brains.

The story may seem a bit hectic and have lots of elements thrown in, but that is its charm. Mallory tells her story in a first-person narration with the kind of patter used by the likes of Sam Spade or Mike Hammer. A lot of humor lightens what could have been a ponderous book. She has moral dilemmas about eating people and troubles with her past (what mysterious thing happened at her birth, how did she become a zombie, and who is trying to pull her strings?) which makes the story interesting and her sympathetic.

The book reads a bit like a pilot of a TV show, setting up lots of ongoing story lines but resolving few of them. The main trial comes to a conclusion but other mysteries are left for sequels. So far, two other books have been written, The Year of Eating Dangerously and I Ate the Sheriff. I'll be reading (and reviewing) these in due course, since I enjoyed this one.