Changes

''The Dead'' is the first in an eponymous a series , with the next two books already with publication dates slated, and it can be tricky to set up the premise without running out of steam too early on in the cycle. Gatward has chosen to deal with this by making this first volume a bit of a mystery tale about what is actually going on. So the full background picture does take a while to get going and I must admit that I'd have preferred a quicker set up and a more rounded whole to this first instalment. Perhaps then we could have avoided the cliffhanger ending, at which I register my usual pique.