What’s Avery Nolan – Private Dick of the Strange: The Case of the Zombie Menace About?
It’s the 1950s in New York City – the Cold War is in full bloom and the Red Scare is everywhere. Private Investigator Avery Nolan is hired by the daughter of a missing research scientist to find him. What he finds instead is the menace of the KGB, a possible U.S. government coverup, and the undead ready to tear America apart from the inside.
Equal parts detective noir and “Night of the Living Dead,†the story is carried into fascinating territory by the title P.I. and an eclectic cast of characters. Avery Nolan is a Lucky Strike-smoking, scotch-drinking, hard-fighting, straight-shooting private investigator from NYC. Sure, he takes his lumps every now and then, but he is always the first in line when payback is due. Add in a who’s-who of side characters, including plenty of dames with great gams, good-guy cops whose moral virtues may not be quite as shiny as their badges, egghead scientists who spout enough geek-talk to make Einstein’s head spin, a hot librarian with a cool hand – and, of course, the walking dead – and you’ve got yourself one killer mystery on your hands.
Now it’s time for the Avery Nolan – Private Dick of the Strange: The Case of the Zombie Menace Review!
Tony Faville’s entry into the undead/horror/apocalyptic genre is a noir piece and is not the title of a porno as some might get that impression from the title. A private dick is slang for private detective and was in common usage in the 1940s-1950s. If in doubt, catch the classic Jack Nicholson ‘Chinatown’. Faville sets his story in New York in the late 1950s. This was a time of large cars, cheap gas, the Communist scare, Hollywood actors, writers and others being called in to senate hearings to determine if they are or have ever been a member of the Communist Party. Picture a world populated by people wearing the wardrobe from ‘Leave it to Beaver’ and you have a general idea of the clothing and style of that time.
Throw in the potential for a zombie outbreak and you have Pleasantville meets Dawn of the Dead.
The pacing and plot of this novel is spot on. Avery Nolan, the hard-boiled private detective with an interesting past is described and detailed in such a way that the reader is able to picture the character in living color. Faville’s Nolan is a no nonsense badass.
The storyline introduces us to the main plot, a missing scientist that is on the edge of an astounding breakthrough, the regeneration and reanimation of wounded soldiers. He is visited by two men who claim to be from the government. Given the secrecy and Red Scare hype from that generation, the encounter plays out just like you’d expect. Mysterious and foreboding.
Enter Avery Nolan, Private Dick.
Akin to the Maltese Falcon, Nolan is visited by a dame with gams that go all the way up. She weaves this tale of a missing father that piques Nolan’s interest. His investigation takes us to the scientist’s lab where he encounters a covert KGB operative resulting in a well detailed and described fight scene with the hero Nolan coming out the winner. Enter Nolan’s police friend, Rex Randall. Like Robert B. Parker’s Sergeant Belsom in the Spenser for Hire series, Randall is Nolan’s confidant on the NYPD.
When the lab is destroyed shortly after a couple of government suits show up and take over the investigation, Nolan suspects more than just a missing father. His detective skills lead him to the waterfront where he confronts the Russian mob, with a lead pipe. Information from that meeting leads our hero to begin to unravel that the wayward professor had a few problems with his regeneration/reanimation resulting in a flesh hungry zombie. That one zombie has now multiplied into a few. Through the course of the story, we see what Nolan sees and acting through him, are able to unravel the mystery at the same time.
Avery Nolan – Private Dick of the Dead is a well written, definite noir piece that is right up there with Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer and Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. Not totally focused on the walking dead, the zombie presence is in the background as the crime related drama takes forefront. But, this novel is a worthy installment into the genre.
Tony Faville’s writing is crisp, smart and paints the world in monochromatic color, taking us back to the late 1950s with ease and developing a world where tough talking, hard-boiled private detectives walk the walk and talk the talk.
Available on Amazon.
