Book Review
Written by Shaun Hutson
Orbit hardback
Release Date Out now
When there is an escalation of race hate crimes in a small UK town, journalist Nick Pearson finds himself fighting an old opponent as well as an army of the Undead…
Unmarked Graves starts off with two seemingly disparate story threads. We follow an African politician escaping his country, and a black journalist, Nick Pearson, as he investigates the racism he sees as rife within the British system. Having recently filmed a documentary on the treatment of black people in police custody, Pearson’s next brief is to investigate a small UK town, Darworth, in Hertfordshire, where race crime is escalating at a frightening rate. Once he arrives, though, things get trickier than he could ever have predicted…
Ostensibly, Unmarked Graves is a simple story of zombies being used to fight the race war, but it goes further than that. It’s a novel about racism, the problems of integration, power and its misuse – using a background of race crimes, bigotry and the African religion Uthalande, akin to Voodoo.
Nick Pearson is totally believable as a black British journalist, trying to uncover bias and solve the crimes occurring in Darworth (grave robbing, violence, kidnapping), and the remaining characters – an overworked detective, BNP-type racist thugs, and refugees – are all painted just as realistically.
Hutson doesn’t shy away from showing the details of Uthalande, and describes mutilation and ritual sacrifice in loving detail, as one has come to expect. But within the context of the tale, this doesn’t come across as gratuitous – it’s necessary for such actions to be horrific, in order for them to pack the necessary punch. This book will shock you. And so it should. Marie O’Regan
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