Official Review: Mary King's Plague by Brian Kaufman

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[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Mary King's Plague" by Brian Kaufman.]

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Mary King’s Plague by Brian Kaufman is a horror novella based on historically true stories of a plague outbreak in 1644 Scotland.

If I had known this book was about zombies, I would never have chosen to review it, and I would have really missed out on an amazing read. From the description of the book I thought it was a factual, historical novel of the plague outbreak in Mary King’s Close, located in Edinburgh, Scotland. Just as I clicked on the button to download, I saw to my horror, the last word of the description said “zombies”. I opened the book anyway, and from the very first paragraph, I was hooked.

Author Brian Kaufman is a masterful story teller on par with Stephen King or Edgar Allen Poe for setting the tone of a piece and maintaining a constant level of intensity from beginning to end. The characters were incredibly complex for such a short book and the primary theme of the book is not the horror at all. The book analyzes how guilt drives the actions of some of the characters, how they look for forgiveness and how they react when faced with their biggest fears. The book does have gore, blood and horror, unstoppable zombies and courageous characters that face up to them; it is definitely not for the faint of heart.

The fact that the book is based on actual events makes it much more than a typical zombie novel. Mary King’s Close was actually walled up during an outbreak of the plague in 1644 and the author has managed to take an absolutely horrifying true story and make it much, much worse. But it is done so realistically and smoothly and with a real flair for historical writing that I think this book would appeal to both horror fans and historical fiction lovers.

The ending of the book includes a factual account of the outbreak and notes that Mary King’s Close is considered one of the most haunted places in the world (and is now added to my list of “places I will not ever go”, especially after reading this book).

I give Mary King’s Plague by Brian Kaufman 4 out of 4 stars, it was really that good. The author did an amazing job bringing characters to life with depth and complexity and reanimating the historical feeling of the time period. I avoid zombie books like the plague, but I will definitely be following Kaufman.

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