The Walking Dead Invasion by Jay Bonansinga

I have already read several of the Walking Dead series of books, written by Jay Bonansinga, which have little in common with the television series seen on AMC network. This book, “The Walking Dead Invasion” deals, for example, with a villain not seen on the show (yet?) – a crazed preacher named Jeremiah. His nemesis here is Lilly Caul, the woman who takes over Woodbury after “The Governor” – another villain who was used on TV – is dead and gone.

I really like Lilly, and I like the storyline where the survivors of Woodbury have had to go underground, using the old “underground railroad” tunnels between towns, to avoid the hoard of zombies on the streets above them. I also like Jeremiah as a villain, since he has that nasty, “Governor” edge. He is able to charm people with his slick and handsome preacher persona, but deep down, he is one troubled pup. He often sees his father, who didn’t treat him very well, in visions, and in one of those, he decides that the answer to the plague is to turn the undead into a controllable army. Like the insatiable hatred the Governor felt for Rick Grimes, the hero of the television series, Jeremiah has it in for Lilly, and will do anything, even destroy his flock of survivors, in order to destroy her first.

The story begins when Jeremiah and some of his flunkies come upon an almost abandoned church. Some zombies are chained into the pews, and a lone human woman is holding down the fort there. She tells them a friend of hers had run away to join a mobile group of survivors, and Jeremiah decides that’s just the place he wants to be. Fortuitously they find the group, which consists of a caravan of various vehicles and a number of families. The group is being led by a Catholic priest, but using a trick the Governor would have used, Jeremiah leaves the Reverend’s RV door open and lets the zombies do their magic. Unfortunately, the priest is hardier than that, and Jeremiah has to shot him himself, taking charge of the caravan in the power vacuum that results.

Next he overpowers some nasty bikers, using them as bait to draw his zombie army. He finds out which tunnels Lilly and her friends are using, and makes his plans to kill them all. It culminates in a showdown, but if you’ve seen either the TV version of the Governor’s showdown with Rick’s group, or have read the books or comics, you’ll find this all very familiar territory. Another crazy baddie gets what’s coming to him.

Along the way, Bonansinga writes great characters, undead and living, although I did get tired of working my way through another yet description of a “squishy” demise of a zombie. I don’t know how many of these books Bonansinga and Kirkman plan to put together, but I do enjoy them as a whole, some more than others. This one – “Invasion” – falls in the middle. I love reading about Lilly, but Jeremiah just seems like a more religious Governor character. Still, I think it would be worth reading for true fans of the AMC series, or Kirkman’s comics.