Review: Braineater Jones by Stephen Kozeniewski

Title: Braineater Jones
Author: Stephen Kozeniewski
Published: Oct. 9, 2013
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Pages: 235
Genre: Zombies, mystery
Review: ebook provided by author
Buy Links: Amazon, Amazon.uk 

Braineater Jones wakes up face down in a swimming pool with no memory of his former life, how he died, or why he’s now a zombie. With a smart-aleck severed head as a partner, Jones descends into the undead ghetto to solve his own murder.

But Jones’s investigation is complicated by his crippling addiction to human flesh. Like all walking corpses, he discovers that only a stiff drink can soothe his cravings. Unfortunately, finding liquor during Prohibition is costly and dangerous. From his Mason jar, the cantankerous Old Man rules the only speakeasy in the city that caters to the postmortem crowd.

As the booze, blood, and clues coagulate, Jones gets closer to discovering the identity of his killer and the secrets behind the city’s stranglehold on liquid spirits. Death couldn’t stop him, but if the liquor dries up, the entire city will be plunged into an orgy of cannibalism.

Cracking this case is a tall order. Braineater Jones won’t get out alive, but if he plays his cards right, he might manage to salvage the last scraps of his humanity.

I received this book to give an honest review.

I honestly had no clue where this book was going to take me but I can say it was a humorous read. Jones is a dead man but has no memory of what happened to him. As the days progress and he ends up becoming somewhat of a P.I. better known as Braineater Jones P.I.  he wants to solve not only his murder but why is not able to remember anything about who he once was. As Jones starts uncovering things his life might be in danger even more since there is only one way to kill a zombie and he needs to make sure that doesn't happen to him.

The weird thing about this book is that zombies and humans live among each other. They have their own area to where they should stay at and of course cops don't come and get into zombie business. But it is like they can co-exist without too much of a worry minus the smell and the dead look. 

I have to say the way this author came about with this story it wasn't gruesome at all to me it was far from it. Yes there is a bit of skin flaking off or maggots in a wound but other than that nothing gory which for me was okay in a book like this. We learn why the zombies or deadman keep up their normal activities such as walking, talking and not eating brains. It all has to do with the liquor.  

I thought Jones was a well developed character I really loved how he didn't give up on asking questions and finding out answers no matter the outcome. I also thought him having a head as a partner really put the icing on the cake in this zombie story, I kept imagining how he taped the head on his shoulder and was wondering how in the heck did it truly stay on.

Stephen Kozeniewski lives in Pennsylvania, the birthplace of the modern zombie. During his time as a Field Artillery officer he served for three years in Oklahoma and one in Iraq, where, due to what he assumes was a clerical error, he was awarded the Bronze Star. He is also a classically trained linguist, which sounds much more impressive than saying his bachelor’s is in German.