Review: Book 4 - Dropping down the charts I'm afraid
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 13, 2013
A marked fall off in appeal from its preceding books in the series.  The Famous Four of Wilde Man, Smith, Batfish and Spot the Dog (plus their military companions picked up in Book 3) find themselves in a strange place of safety in the middle of Winter whilst legions of zombies lay siege outside.I've remarked in previous reviews how Christian Fletcher has discovered a formula for this series, well now he's milking it like a commercial dairy. There's a strained attempt to inject A Secret and an Agatha Christie murder mystery into the story, but the effort is thinly masked and this reader saw though the flimsy curtain easily.  The only problem was how the FF would escape - this time - and yet again.  Franklin W Dixon's Hardy Boys adventures easily beat the pants off this vapid effort for suspense and imagination.  Sorry.What's getting really annoying now is the characters' clunking stupidity which Fletcher deploys as a crude device to move the story along.  It's insulting even this reader's modest intelligence. For example, Smith is idiotically made to shoot a zombie in a village just so the escapees can trudge through yet another "let's get out of here!" pursuit by an entire community of The Undead.  Wow....smart move....now there's two chapters in the bag right there while the FF do their usual E&E; thing of diving into a store and ***escaping down the fire escape*** and wondering ***what's behind this closed gate outside?****...gosh I hope we can open it ***so that we can escape*** to another building ***filled with zombies***.... Ye Gods!Overall, an easy read with old familiar characters following a know-it-by-heart pantomime script.  Apart from Wilde Man, all the lead characters remain as thinly sketched as ever; for example, Smith is knocked down to the level of a supporting actor in this book whilst Batfish remains as unknown and guessable and undeveloped as she ever was. Goth chicks deserve better.Will I buy any Book 5?Teetering...maybe...maybe not.  Like deciding whether to put down some discretionary coin and recreational time on buying a ticket to watch Police Academy 5....Oh look!  A jumping shark!