Fantastic unique take on the zombie epic. A real page turner that I finished in a matter of days. And it's not the end of the story as there are 2 sequels. Highly recommended.

The Dead Bear Witness will leave you flat and without many answers. This is a quick read, but this could have been better.

Cornell murdered someone while robbing a bank. He was given a life sentence. He didn’t care, he even thought that he deserved a life sentence. He gets put in solitary and when he returns to his cell, e is surprised by an older con who has him watch a video that shows him about the dead coming back to life. He is approached by one of the cons, Klug who is “boss” of his section. He wants Cornell to help him escape before the zombies get to the prison. The warden has Cornell escorted by the guards to his office. He wants Cornell to help the prisoners to volunteered to confess their sins to the warden and then be willing to get executed. Why? Will Cornell help the warden or escape with Klug? Then the book goes into a military twist which became confusing to read at times.

If you like zombies, this is a novel to read. It is interesting to see how a convict sees what has happened to the area outside of the prison and how he reacts to learning about the zombies and what he decides to do. I don’t know what I would do if I were in his shoes. It’s an interesting novel that is well written.

The author had a difficult job right from the start but did well in making his characters sort of likeable. Most books try to endear us to the protagonist as early as possible so that those emotional connections can build that keep us invested in the story. However, in The Dead Bare Witness we learn in the first few pages that our protagonist is a convicted armed robber / murderer and is currently in prison. And no, he wasn't wrongly convicted. The story follows a group of prisoners and guards as they try to navigate a new system within the prison that has risen after the outside world has succumbed to a zompoc. Prisoners become zombies when they die and with tensions high many fatal fights erupt, so they have to develop a system of dealing with the zombies to prevent a full on outbreak.
At the end of chapter 10 we get a twist in the story that hints that the walking dead may not be your normal garden variety zombie which is very intriguing (and creepy as hell).
At approx 60% the story of the convicts stops dead (no pun intended) and what feels like a completely new story begins. It is actually the story from the scientists' and military point of view but it just doesn't gel well with the first half. I think it would have read better and flowed more if there had been a switch of perspectives running throughout the whole book rather than the first part one perspective and then the second part another. This is what made the book a 3 star for me rather than a 4 star.
That being said, I did enjoy the book and will definitely be reading the sequel at some point to find out more about the freaky zombies and to see how things develop.

The concept of this book is not really that 'new' but still, I'm interested. Besides, I love this kind of story even if it's not 'new'. I also love the idea of zombies evolving which is the best part of this book and the reason for my three stars.

Sadly though, I didn't find everything in this book interesting. The first half seemed flat. From the characters to the dialogues, they just seemed bland. Maybe because they're bit cliche, but I think, more than that, it seemed forced. There isn't a natural flow to the story so I ended up, reading even faster than usual just so I end it faster. Thankfully the second half of the book became more interesting.

So overall, this is still a good read and deserves 3 stars.

Not my usual read, and the ending felt too abrupt with too many unanswered questions for me. A cliffhanger is one thing, but this felt unfinished. Hoping to see more in the next one!

This book was interesting in ways. I would rate it 4/5. The characters were likeable and the story plot was okay.

This was a pretty good short zombie story, and quite different from the zombie novels I have read.
Zombies in this story are very hard to kill, basically having to chop them into pieces and burn them which would be so hard to survive in that world. I did like getting a story about the prisoners and their point of view and i loved the other story of the doctor and the zombies evolving. But this story did feel flat, i felt there could have been more, the first story especially just stops dead in its tracts and jumps to the doctors story. i would have loved if each chapter went back in forth instead of doing half and half. other than that i enjoyed it, i would def read the second book since i am left with unanswers.

thanks Netgalley and publisher for the e-arc