Permuted Press has another zombie book written by Irish author Derek Gunn. The premise of the book caught my attention as it involved some history in the back-story, and I’ve enjoyed other Permuted Press books in the past. However I have to admit that I was pretty unimpressed by The Estuary.

This post-apocalyptic novel centers around a covert Nazi mission, which we unfortunately don’t learn too much about other than it gives the people involved a case of the heebie-jeebies. We are immediately whisked away to the present day where we are brought into the life of John Pender and his family in the village of Whiteshead.

Soon the discovery is made of a metal object within the estuary of a large metal object. Upon further digging, more canisters are found, which in turn begin to leak a strange gas. This infects any person who came into nearby contact and create the living dead who are obsessed with feasting on human flesh. The survivors try to escape but find that they are trapped by the army who have quarantined the town. The last hope for them is to cross the estuary to reach an old fortress that juts out of the water, which means getting past all of the infected.

The one thing that really disappointed me was the fact that we get the short prologue involving the Nazis and the secret mission. I would have loved to read more about that, but it felt like it was rushed. The rest of the novel felt the same. Events seemed to unfold too quickly, and in the end I really didn’t care for any of the characters in the book. I will say that the action scenes that happen near the end of the book were written quite well and I really enjoyed those. But throughout most of the book I have to admit I was bored.

I think this was one of the more lackluster books that I’ve read from Permuted Press, but if you’re looking for some new post-apocalyptic horror I recommend checking it out. You can always see if your local library has it to borrow. And there’s always great deals on Amazon!