David Koepp is best known as the screenwriter behind Jurassic Park, and I think that background is particularly evident in Cold Storage. This book moves. It has the pacing of a movie, with one increasingly intense scene leading directly into the next.
I am not usually drawn to zombie books, so I wasn't sure what I was getting into with this one when a friend recommended it. The premise involves a dangerous **thing** that has been kept in cold storage for years and, once released, begins doing what dangerous **things** apparently do best: multiplying and causing chaos.
It is also very gross. There is a lot of biological detail, and “squishy” is probably the best word I can come up with to describe some of it. But somehow, all of that is entertaining rather than disturbing.
I particularly enjoyed the characters. They are unusual and memorable, and there is enough humor woven throughout the story to keep it from becoming relentlessly dark.
The pacing is probably the biggest strength. Nearly half the book takes place during the final 38 minutes of the story (yes, there’s a bomb countdown involved). The tension just keeps building, and the result is an extremely fast and intense finish.
Cold Storage was different, clever, gross-but-funny and very quick to read.
