Bay of the Dead

Bay of the Dead by Mark Morris was a pretty mediocre Torchwood novel. It's a standard "zombie apocalypse" story, with a little bit of a twist in that the zombies are mostly simulcra created by a comatose, alien-infested ("Leet of the Dellacoi") guy who had been stricken at a horror movie festival. But basically, it's a very cliched story with little new to offer to the zombie genre or Torchwood. Nor is there enough humor or character development to gloss over the rather boring plot. The author seems to think that having the characters make a few knowing references to pop culture zombie movies suddenly makes this particular take a clever one, which simply isn't the case.

A couple of notes:

* We hear here that Captain Jack has a bit of a rivalry with a "tall, slim, beautiful black woman" police detective named Swanson (who apparently first appeared in They Keep Killing Suzie).

* We see PC Andy's new partner, Dawn Stratton.

* We get a first, brief look at a really fun character in The House That Jack Built, old man/alien Alexander Martin.

* Despite the title, nautical-oriented fans should know there's only one minor scene set on Cardiff Bay.