Dearly departed takes a familiar zombie theme and completely turns it on its ear. 

This is the debut novel from Lia Habel, and although the first chapter does not set the scene well, with bloated prose and no set up, from then on in its nonstop page turning as were taken on an emotional action packed ride. 

The world building is very clever; set in a future America, where the population has chosen to revert to a Victorian period England. Anyone who has ever read a historical romance can understand how ideal that world seems, how romantic, how civilized, how refined. Of course anyone who’s put more than a passing thought to the fantasy quickly discovers the downside to that world. And this is the world we are in, with strict class structure, no woman’s rights, employment and schooling based on who you parents are, and all the fakery that is required to stay in ones class. 

Living trapped in this world is Miss Dearly. She’s in the right class, so even as an orphan she's going to the right school. But she isn't a particularly good little lady; she is fascinated by the most appalling news footage and is just a little too good at shooting. She's a rather spunky heroine who doesn't put up with too much crap and adapts quickly with aplomb. 

Hidden from this world is the zombie apocalypse that is quietly happening, and it's being kept hidden by the military. But the really strange thing about this zombie apocalypse? Some of the dead are “normal”. 

One of these would be the handsome, for a dead guy, Bram. 

The whole story is in first person, but to add yet another twist, we hear several different voices. In some ways this was great as it meant we knew what was going on without any convoluted dialogue, and even with all the POVs we still managed to get a bit of misdirection thrown in to keep the reader on their toes. However it did feel like there were too many main characters, even though there were really only two, the POV writing style allowed the secondary characters to develop more than they really needed to in the first book. 

Overall, this is a great fun read, very light, but clever and original. Well worth a look at if you like zombies, light action, or have a secret fantasy about living in a regency romance.