If you can't have fun with zombies playing football, you might want to check and make sure you still have a pulse yourself. Play Dead doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is: an unabashed, outrageously over the top, rollicking good story. It's zombie comedy, pure and simple -- and, as such, it succeeds remarkably well.

I'm particularly happy to report that at least one brain (not necessarily human) is eaten before all is said and done (eating brains is, after all, what zombies are supposed to do). Does first-time author Ryan Brown answer every single question raised in the story? No, but I don't think that poses any problem whatsoever. I picture Brown writing this novel with tongue planted firmly in cheek and a perpetual grin on his face -- and I think most readers will find that grin of his to be quite contagious.

Anyone who grew up in America and cared the least little bit about athletics surely knows how strong and rancorous a local rivalry can be, especially when it comes to football -- and even more especially if it takes place in the heart of Texas. The rivalry between Killington and Elmwood Heights, however, is beyond intense. Did thugs from your school's arch-enemy attack and hack off a few fingers from the hand of your team's star quarterback? That's what a few of the roid-raging Badgers of Elmwood Heights do to Killington's Cole Logan -- and that's just for starters. When they find out that Logan still plans on playing in the big game that can win them a spot in the championship game against their team, the ringleader gets the whole Badgers roster involved in a truly heinous crime that leaves the entire Jackrabbits squad (with the exception of Logan and the head coach) entombed inside the team bus below the surface of a local river.

More often than not, the sudden death of an entire football team is a season-ending blow. Not, however, when that team's biggest fan is -- for want of a better term -- a witch with the knowledge and power to raise the dead. It falls on Logan and his unlikely ally (the coach's daughter Savannah) to somehow keep the justifiably suspicious sheriff's department in the dark as they reintroduce the suddenly not dead team to their grieving parents, prepare the guys for what will be a game with eternal implications, and somehow convince the powers that be that the game must take place within two days -- all without anyone learning the fact that these silent, ravenously hungry, seriously roughed-up band of Friday night heroes have joined the ranks of the walking dead.

While a dark sense of humor will serve you well here, you don't have to be a zombie fan to enjoy this novel. While the story may not extend any deep roots into the fertile soil of your imagination, Ryan Brown proves himself to be a natural-born storyteller with quite a flair for dark comedy. There is never a lull in the story, and the author juggles different characters and subplots with great efficiency and aplomb. As polar opposites, Logan and Savannah make for an intriguing duo, and the Badgers are just the type of bad guys you love to hate. I was as anxious as any lifelong citizen of Killington to see this zombie football team get out there and stomp a mud hole in those punks. Needless to say, I enjoyed Play Dead immensely.