Book Review: Tooth and Nail by Craig DiLouie

PFC John Mooney and his fellow troops of Charlie Company are recalled from Afghanistan to confront a new challenge on its home ground: a new disease known as Hong Kong Lyssa which gives the victims flu-like symptoms but in some cases turns them violent, almost rabid. The problem is that Lyssa spreads faster than the government thought possible. PFC Mooney and the other soldiers find themselves in New York, guarding hospitals and medical facilities for the ill and those ready to go "Mad Dog" -- what the extremely violent are called. The Mad Dogs are an odd lot - their throats swell, they drip saliva, they grunt and growl rather than talk, and they produce a sickly, sour odor.

What the soldiers learn is that their bite is far worse than their smell. PFC Mooney and the rest follow new orders to find a specific hospital somewhere in the city where scientists have created a possible cure and secure the scientists. The problem is the soldiers need to fight their way across the city to find it, through an ever-growing army of Mad Dogs, who live only to infect others.

Tooth and Nail takes the struggle of man vs. zombie-like creatures down to the battle field, showing the fight from the soldiers on the front line. Already tired from the war overseas and being thrown headfirst against a possibly unstoppable foe, author Craig DiLouie manages to describe the toll that the strain and fatigue places on the soldiers and throws the reader right into the thick of things. I liked that about this book, the feeling that I was with them as they cautiously moved along the darkened streets wearing night-vision goggles or running along a hospital hallway chased by hundreds of salivating Mad Dogs. What a great rush, and using the present tense added to the immediacy of events. Sometimes, the military lingo became a bit frustrating and having to flip to the front of the book for the glossary of abbreviations dragged the pacing a bit.

The Mad Dogs themselves, while reminiscent of the infected in 28 Days Later, were still unique in their looks and actions: swollen throats, sometimes with body parts missing or torn to shreds, sniffing and threatening like rabid dogs, "hunting" in packs.

Tooth and Nail is a very effective story of humanity toppling over the edge and falling toward an uncertain future. Gritty and violent, it molds itself to the zombie apocalypse well and makes for a great read.

Tooth and Nail
by Craig DiLouie
Schmidt Haus Books/Salvo Press
ISBN: 1-930486-98-7
Softcover, 247p

Book received free from Publisher

Image from Salvo Press.