The Zero Dog War by Keith Melton

The Particulars: Urban Fantasy, Samhain, available as  e-book.

The Source: Purchased at Allromance

The Grade: B-

The blurb:

After accidentally blowing up both a client facility and a cushy city contract in the same day, pyromancer and mercenary captain Andrea Walker is scrambling to save her Zero Dogs. A team including (but not limited to) a sexually repressed succubus, a werewolf with a thing for health food, a sarcastic tank driver/aspiring romance novelist, a three-hundred-pound calico cat, and a massive demon who really loves to blow stuff up.
With the bankruptcy vultures circling, Homeland Security throws her a high-paying, short-term contract even the Zero Dogs can’t screw up: destroy a capitalist necromancer bent on dominating the gelatin industry with an all-zombie workforce. The catch? She has to take on Special Forces Captain Jake Sanders, a man who threatens both the existence of the team and Andrea’s deliberate avoidance of romantic entanglements.
As Andrea strains to hold her dysfunctional team together long enough to derail the corporate zombie apocalypse, the prospect of getting her heart run over by a tank tread is the least of her worries. The government never does anything without an ulterior motive. Jake could be the key to success…or just another bad day at the office for the Zeroes.

The review:

I had heard good things about Keith Melton, so when Allromance offered a 50% discount on Samhain books, I bought it. The story starts with a bang, and everything wents down hill from there. The plot twisted and turned. I liked how they only had partial success, never a total victory, when they faced the villain.  I enjoyed the misfits of The Zero Dog Mercenaries.  From Rafe, the werewolf, to  Mai with her undead pets.  I enjoyed how the author played with the prejudices, and turned them into something new.  

This story has a large dose of humor with the action, and I loved the snark, and the way Andrea couldn’t  stop mouthing off with Jake.  However, at times it felt like the author focused to much on the humor. 

This especially shows when it comes to the villain, which is a heap of clichés.  In  fact, it felt like the author had piled on every cliché he could think off.  So, will I buy another book by  Keith Melton?  Probably.  It was a fun,  fast paced read and I enjoyed it.