Dead Reckoning (review)

West Texas in the late 1860s promises trouble for even the most experienced desperado, but what Jett Galatin witnesses in the small town of Alsop is far more disturbing than any rough-and-tumble barfight. Narrowly escaping the zombies that leave Alsop a virtual ghost town, the normally unflappable and solitary Jett, who has spent the last few months disguised as a man as she searches for her missing brother, joins up with two other lonely souls: White Fox, an Army scout on the lookout for his pal and a homestead, both of which have gone missing, and Gibbons, a science-minded Yankee sent West to investigate her father's claims of a giant airship abducting entire villages. Together, the trio determines that the mysterious disappearances are more than likely a result of zombie attacks, and they set their sights on Jerusalem's Wall, a ranch turned home to the cultish Fellowship of the Divine Resurrection. Lackey and Edghill give readers a good old-fashioned mashup here, paying homage to the western, zombie, and steampunk genres without wandering into the campiness of satire. Sure, there's a bit of fun to be had in Jett's over-the-top stoicism, Gibbon's neurotic experimenting, and White Fox's . . . well, general foxiness, but readers looking for a spoof of the latest YA trends may instead find themselves genuinely terrified by the story's chilling depiction of reanimated corpses and the greedy con-man who exploits them. The third-person narration keeps all three of the main characters at an arm's length, mirroring the emotional detachment of traditional Westerns. Still, there's plenty of charm in the understated romance between Jett and White Fox, while the friends' promise to meet up again lays the groundwork for a sequel. Vampire cowhands, anyone?