The seventh instalment of the ZOM-B series is mostly dedicated to world-building which, considering it takes place in a London not that far removed from our own (with the obvious addition of zombies), is quite a risky thing to spend an entire book doing. Fortunately, this is one of the aspects of the book that really works. Shan has included a line or two about the wildlife and lack thereof which makes complete sense and makes us wonder why we didn’t think of it before.

We’re also starting to get an idea of what’s to come in this series and get a feeling of who’s doing what and why. We almost feel bad for the characters who’ve been through hell, as it looks like the answers to those questions will be surprisingly mundane; their efforts might well be for naught. An organisation from the real world makes a surprising reappearance, and it will be interesting to see where the story goes based on this.

In fact, the most interesting thing in the book is the fate of Mr Burke. We hope this gets wrapped up soon while the mystery is still potent, as by 2015 the younger crowd might well have forgotten who he is and why his fate matters.

All things considered, this is an improvement on the last book. The plot of this one has at least stuck with us (which, as we said in our review of the last book, is a lot more than could be said for much of the series) and for once we’re looking forward to seeing what the eighth book will have to offer. Let’s hope this is the beginning of a string of hits.

6/10.