Number 12 - The Roo - Alan Baxter

If ever a book cover was designed to make me buy the book the instant I saw it, it's this one. If the picture of the evil killer kangaroo wasn't enough, that tagline - See You, Outback - settles the deal. 

You could accuse me of having low standards but I'd argue that you're probably right.

Anyway, aside from that amazing cover, what is the inside of the book like?

It starts with a foreword that tells us the book was actually born from a picture Keelan Burke (a well known cover artist and hoerror writer in his own right - whose work you're looking at right now) drew for a laugh.  Alan Baxter then took up the challenge of writing the book to fit the cover.

And a damned fine job he's done of it too.  It's better written than these killer animal on the loose books normally are.  It's no work of  pure literature. It's not going to worry Hilary Mantel in the race for the Booker prize this year.  It's a story about a supernatural seven foot tall kangaroo with flaming eyes and sharp fangs.  Sometimes, that's all you need for entertainment.


There are more shreddies in this book than in a factory full of breakfast cereals* and their deaths are truly magniicent in the sheer gleeful gore. The visual imagery in this book is fabulous.   My favourite image was probably Brennan Lafaro's death, I won't describe it here, buy the book for yourself. It's only short, about 120 pages, and even includes a glossary of Australian slang in the back,

The characters behave like normal people, which is unusual in this sub-genre.  Their reactions to the sight of a seven foot Roo with glowing red eyes and a mouthful of sharp teeth are entirely as you'd imagine. In its short page count, this manages some great gore scenes, laugh out loud funny moments and occasionally some real tension.

This book really needs to be filmed. Someone phone the guys that made Black Sheep - they'd ace this, it's exactly their sense of humour.

I will be seeking out more Allan Baxter books on the back of this one.

And Yes I know I've missed book 11 - that's the next play I'm appearing in and I will post my rundown on it after the performance -but just FYI - it's a play called the Herd by Rory Kinnear

*Shreddies are what I call characters who appear only to die horribly.