Kill Them All

The Dead Man #6

by Harry Shannon

When Matt wanders into a struggling Nevada tourist trap recreation of an "old west" town, he's unaware that he's being trailed by a Special Ops team of professional mercenaries hired by a University desperate to learn the secret behind his resurrection...and that he's put everyone around him in dire jeopardy. The mercenaries have no intention of letting Matt escape...or let any witnesses survive. Matt finds himself in a deadly bind. Somehow he must rally the peaceful citizens into defending themselves against the sadistic, well armed mercenaries...or sacrifice himself to save them from certain death.

Genres: Horror

Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

ALL WORKS NOW ON KINDLE AND NOOK!
Harry Shannon has been an actor, a singer, an Emmy-nominated songwriter, a recording artist in Europe, a music publisher, a film studio executive and worked as a free-lance Music Supervisor on films such as “Basic Instinct” and “Universal Soldier.” He is author of the horror novels “Night of the Beast” and “Night of the Werewolf” in addition to “Daemon” (formerly “Night of the Daemon”). Harry also wrote the Mick Callahan suspense novels “Memorial Day,” (2005) “Eye of the Burning Man,” (2006) and “One of the Wicked” (Nov. 2008), as well as the acclaimed thriller “The Pressure of Darkness” (2006). His novel "Dead and Gone" (August 2008) has a movie version, screenplay by Shannon, and it is now on DVD via LionsGate. All of his early novels are now available via Amazon.com on Kindle, and some via Smashwords. His collection "A Host of Shadows" and the novella "PAIN" were recently published by Dark Regions Press. "CLAN" and "The Hungry" (co-written with Steven W, Booth) are also on Kindke and Nook. "The Dead Man: Kill Them All" we be released by Amazon.com via their new publishing company Thomas and Mercer. Harry can be contacted via his web site www.harryshannon.com. He is also a member of Top Suspense Group www.topsuspensegroup.com

Reviews

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt Cahill, if you don’t know him by now he is the man who was frozen solid for three months and brought back to life.
Knowledge of his fortunate second chance on life is getting around and he’s becoming a legend, others are in search of his secret of eternal youth and his blood.
Entereth the man, with an axe to hand, Matt Cahill to Dry Wells a small town sparkling in the shadows like a forlorn jewel. Is Mr Dark here?
Like hell he is! And soon Matt will be against Mr Dark’s new recruits to his evil cause, a band of mercenary soldiers possessed by the evil powers of Mr Dark.
These stories of Matt Cahill with his new life and his battles against Mr Dark have been written by various authors from the first episode and this one number six is a healthy thrill ride of axe slaying shotgun pumping cowboy style drama.
I was giving up on the Mat Cahill adventures; until I heard that this episode was in the capable hands of Harry Shannon I urgently shot it to the front of my reading pile. He is the writer who created the character of one strikingly hot lady in a white wedding dress and a shotgun to hand in the zombie story The Hungry.

“He was alone in a huge trailer parked out in the desert, guarded by mercenary soldiers recruited in the cause of evil. Everyone thought he’d left town. The rancher he’d visited was dead, and perhaps Matt would be blamed for the murder. As for any chance of rescue, no one even knew he was here. Only one thing was certain.
Matt was in deep, deep shit.”

Review also here

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

My joy for reading Shannon's work led me to Kill Them All, book six of the Dead Man series, and my first dip into the series. It's a novella and can be read inn less than a day, unless you read multiple books like I do.

Matt Cahill is a man who was frozen solid for three months before being brought back to life. Now that he is back, he can see that some people have something supernatural, something evil possessing their mind and actions. He is on the hunt for the ever elusive Mr. Dark.

In Kill them All, Cahill rescues a young girl deep crevice within the rock. He is then the praise of the small town from which she comes from. They want to shower Cahill with beer, a free night at the hotel, and food, but he just wants to move on, continue his search.

A team of mercenaries, however, are on his trail. Someone wants to study Matt under the radar, and when the mercenaries find and forcibly take Cahill, his plans are ruined.

What comes next is like reading a fun western set in modern times, with shoot outs and fire. Some of the action near the end, except for maybe one or two things, felt very realistic to me. The characters are also very well drawn and I could picture them all clearly. My favorite was the town itself. A tourist town, it was built and maintained like the downtown district of the old Wild West. I would just love to visit such a town.

What it comes down to is that this is a short, fun ride into a modern western with a supernatural twist. If the rest of the series is this good, then I am a new fan and can't wait to read more.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series relaunches this coming week under Amazon Publishing's 47North sf/horror/fantasy imprint, bringing the first five ebooks, grouped in threes, to trade books.

Matt Cahill, the living dead man, rescues a young girl who'd fell into a mine and is received by the nearby town, a struggling "old west" recreation, as a hero.

Unknown to him though, a team of mercenaries is on his trail, hired by a university that wants him for his special abilities(after all, being buried in an avalanche for three months and coming back to life is no small feat). They are dangerous and have no plans to leave witnesses behind.

When he becomes aware of their deadly intentions, Matt must convince the innocent townspeople of the need to fight for their lives

And, of course, he's seen evidence his enemy, the scary Mr. Dark, is in the background somewhere controlling things. He can see it in the mercenaries' faces, that rotting oozing flesh that only he can see.

One of my favorite new series.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

And thankfully, the series continues...

Matt is on a new adventure in an "Old West" Nevada town. The sex is toned down in this one as Matt truly doesn't have time with all of the action he's partaking in (and really creating himself). I loved this installment and can't wait for the next one. I have to say that this one was far worth the wait. Molotov cocktail in the hands of teens upstairs in a whorehouse anyone? This book was just amazing and action packed from start to finish.

Matt is in search, once again, for Mr. Dark so he may rid the world (and have some peace of mind) from this evil. He finds himself in Nevada and in an attempt to escape the small town he discovers he's being searched for himself.

[Tyson Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harry is the latest author to contribute to The Dead Man series of novellas. It must be daunting to receive the call.
Lee Goldberg: Hi Harry. Do you want to write an edition of The Dead Man?
Harry Shannon: Why sure Lee, I love that series.
Lee: Okay, just don't fuck it up!

Fortunately Harry has come through with the writing goods to keep the series' reputation intact. Matt and his axe are back, once again visiting a small town, ready to kick some evil arse (I'm Australian, we spell it arse, not ass). This time, though, some professional bad guys are after his blood, literally.

Harry's other books are worth checking out as well. He writes horror (the Night Series) and thrillers (Mick Callahan series), showing the creepy thrills in this Dead Man book weren't an accident.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this installment particularly interesting, as the author settles the reader a bit more deeply in the mind of Matt Cahill (and also showed us another character thinking about him, which I do not think we have seen before). Up to now, the stories have had us looking out of his eyes, or looking down at him, but not so much thinking his thoughts. I liked this more personal approach.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a real departure from the usual The Dead Man books in both quality and direction. Thank goodness it was only short.

I don't have an extremely high bar for this series but this did not even come close to coming anywhere near passable. I assume there is a point to this book with the wider arching narrative, but I suspect you may be able to skip this one altogether and pick up the point it makes elsewhere.

[Gef · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been falling behind in Lee Goldberg's and William Rabkin's Dead Man series. In the time since I read the fifth volume, The Blood Mesa, which was way back in the summer of last year, a lot has happened. The series is already up to about the eighth volume--maybe ninth by now--and the books even got picked up Amazon's publishing wing, 47 North. Bigger and better things, but are the books still bringing the goods?

When last we saw our hero, he was in New Mexico as I recall thwarting a cult on the top of a mesa in the desert. In Kill Them All, Matt Cahill is wandering down a Nevada road until he finds himself in a desiccated "old west" town. And the sparse population is comprised of characters, each more eccentric than the last. After an impromptu display of his ass-kicking ability, Matt discovers there is an influence on a few people in town by who he suspects is Mr. Dark. But when he digs a little deeper on the outskirts at an old farm, he finds a whole lot more than he bargained for, including a brand new enemy who is out for blood--literally.

The book is filled with action of every stripe. Fist fights, gun fights. About the only thing missing was a car chase. Kill Them All also feels like the most stand-alone of all the books since the very first one. The wandering stranger motif is in full effect and done quite well, though the action took away from some character development of the townsfolk that I thought could have used just a bit more attention. And while the callback to the overarching storyline didn't go the way I expected, and was hoping for considering how long it was since I'd read from this series, the new introductions put into the story by Harry Shannon were really intriguing and added a new dreadful angle to Matt Cahill's ordeal that should come into play very nicely in future editions.

It's not a blowout return to the series, but that's on me given the amount of time it's been since I read The Blood Mesa, although the vibe of the Dead Man series is pitch perfect and the showdown with a gang of mercenaries was explosive literally and figuratively. Fans of the series ought to enjoy it, but newcomers are best to go back to the first book and work your way through. Pulpy, blood-soaked, sun-bleached fun.

[Nathan Shumate · Rating 2 out of 5]

With the announcement just a couple of weeks ago that the Dead Man series was picked up for publication through Amazon’s “47 North” imprint, I feel sorta bad posting a negative review of the fifth volume; I don’t want to poop on their parade.

But I consider this the weakest entry in the series so far. Matt Cahill, the man who shouldn’t be alive but is, wanders into a small Nevada town (which is supposed to be a Old West town maintained for the tourists, even though we never see a single tourist) with a mysterious team of mercenaries after him. The town is cut off from the outside world by an obligatory contrivance, and Matt and a cadre of smalltown cliches (why would a town this small have a sheriff? come to think of it, why would any town have a sheriff, as it’s an elected county position?) have to hold off the mercenaries by themselves.

It feels here like the series is spinning its wheels; fortunately, the one good point to the novel is that it introduces — or re-introduces, for the first time since the initial installment — that Cahill might be valuable to someone trying to find a means of immortality. So while Cahill is chasing Mr. Dark around the country — for no reason that’s all that clear, a weak point in the series concept — there is now established an organization chasing Cahill. Here’s hoping that that concept pays off in future installments, or the whole enterprise might peter out.

Disclaimer: Because of the unelected dweebs at the FTC who wouldn’t know the First Amendment if it wore a thong and gave them a lap dance, I must hereby announce that the media reviewed herein was received gratis from the distributor of said media with the understanding that I would comment on said media in this blog.

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matt arrives in Dry Well, NV in spectacular fashion after saving the sheriff’s daughter, who had fallen in a mine. However, he has been followed to Nevada by mercenaries hired by the university that first treated him after he was found under the snow, who are determined they are going to figure out how he is still alive – even if it kills Matt. Can Matt and the townspeople of Dry Well hold off the mercenaries? Or is this the end of the road for Matt Cahill?

This is the last of this series that I have, and I will definitely be getting the rest of them as soon as I can – this is really enjoyable series – fast reads, entertaining and fast-paced story lines, and very suspenseful. Highly recommended for fans of dark thrillers/suspense and horror.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harry Shannon's take on The Dead Man was excellent. I've loved every book in the series so far, but this one left me with the feeling of being all dusted-up and tumbleweedy when I finished. The western theme was a fun twist and the action was non-stop!

Alas, poor Matt. Will he ever be able to kick-back and escape the evil in the world, and the world beyond? Not only does he have the mysterious and evil Mr. Dark to contend with, but in "Kill Them All" he's got baddies chasing him who will stop at nothing to capture him for use as a lab rat. There isn't much down time in this book, so be prepared for a fast and thrilling read.

As usual, I'll be waiting with bated breath for the next installment!

[Dan Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

If installment #5 (BLOOD MESA) was the DEAD MAN Series' "action-horror" outing, this installment is definitely the "neo-western" of the bunch. Hero/drifter Matt Cahill lands in a fading tourist trap recreation of a Wild West town and must rally the townspeople in order to hold off a gang of mercenaries touched by Mr. Dark. After a bit of a letdown with BLOOD MESA the series is definitely back on track with this one!

[Pearce · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a slightly different entry in the Dead Man series, a bit more straightforward and less disturbing than usual. Mike saves a young girl from a caving accident, which gets a small town of decent folk on his side when trouble comes calling. Mr. Dark even sits this one out.

All in all, it's a bit dull despite the short length and okay action scenes.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice rebound from the book that preceded this one. The plot in this series, to this point, is getting a bit formulaic, but this one moved the overall story along nicely, at least! Hope to see more of Mr. Dark soon, though!

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must admit that I was not into this story in the series as much as others. Maybe as I'm not s big fan of westerns, and this read like a classic western movie with a shootout in an old town to boot. Least favorite of the 3 in this last compilation of stories 4, 5, and 6.

[Ed Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another quick, fun read and the introduction of a new enemy into the series.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent episode in this series.

[Jayme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to give this one 5 stars. This book was just very enjoyable to me. If you have liked the last five I don't see how you can go wrong here.

[Rod DeBord · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, still makes some mistakes with the logic leaving gaping holes in the scenario.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A crackerjack thriller, tense and bloody but also full of humor and heart, not to mention some really evocative language. The best book in the series to this point.

[Ming · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a bit of a nice surprise - an old-school Western, with a little more heart than the usual Dead Man episodes.

[G8tes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the sixth book in The Dead Man series I've read. I found it to be well written and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I think this series is beginning to feel a bit repetitive.

[Oliver Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A western style adventure for Matt Cahill, and as much fun as that sounds.