On Her Majesty’s Behalf: The Great Undead War, Book 2

This fast-paced sequel to By the Blood of Heroes (2012) is another competent horror thriller set in a fantastical version of WWI. After a kickoff set piece, hero “Madman” Burke and his squad are assigned a risky rescue mission in devastated, zombie-infested London. As they evade hordes of the new fast “shredders,” the creative, nonstop action moves swiftly from crisis to crisis, intensity building steadily, interrupted only by brief discourses on weaponry or fantastical technology. Characters from the previous installment, including villain Manfred Von Richthofen, make brief but important appearances, rewarding continuing readers of the series. Unfortunately, the imaginative core idea of German gas that creates zombies is rendered formulaic by stereotypical pulp characters and a ludicrously unlikely romantic attraction stuffed into the latter half of the book. (Dec.)