Seasick for free from Amazon. I really enjoyed that one and went on to read Final Winter which I also enjoyed and Ian Robb Wright’s easy-read, high-concept books remained attractive to me.
So when got a few chapters into Maniac Menagerie and realised that in a sentence it was Jurassic Park with serial killers instead of dinosaurs, I was pretty intrigued.
Unfortunately, on finishing the book, I can safely say this is one to avoid.
Uninteresting characters and cheesy dialogue was one of the biggest issues. And when you’re not behind the characters, the bottom of the story really falls out.
Following that were issues with the handling of serial killers. Despite their inhuman acts, serial killers are human at the end of the day and are complex individuals and often extremely intelligent. But in Maniac Menagerie, they’re more like the mindless Rage-infected zombies of 28 Days Later trying to kill everyone in sight. There were a couple of exceptions, but the cardboard characterisation wasn’t enough.
So essentially Maniac Menagerie feels more like is Jurassic Park with zombies. I was hoping for so much more.
