The Estuary

The Estuary is a Survival Horror novel by Irish horror novelist Derek Gunn. The events of the novel can basically be summarized as “Sleepy tourist town finds submerged Nazi superweapon that creates zombies, wackiness ensues.” Surprising is the fact the novel is actually fairly subdued and subtle about its horror, the action doesn’t begin until well over a hundred pages into the novel.

The Estuary has received favorable reviews and a great deal of mainstream attention despite its genre origins.

Tropes used in The Estuary include:

Asshole Victim: Andrew Peters at first.
Armies Are Evil: Unintentionally invoked. The British and Irish governments simultaneously write off Whiteshead with very little fanfare, fully intending to let the entire town die without making any attempt to save its uninfected residents.
Captain Ersatz: Dave Johnson seems like he's going to be one of James Bond. Derek Gunn manages to keep the ex-British Secret Agent this side of plausible.
Doing In the Wizard: The Nazi superweapon appears to rely entirely on scientific principles, even if they’re of the Handwavium type.
Doomed Hometown: Pretty much the point of the novel for the majority of the protagonists.
Heel Face Turn: Andrew Peters.
Heroic Sacrifice: Too many to count, apparently zombie plagues bring this out in small Irish cities.
Historical Villain Upgrade: Narrowly averted. Admiral Donitz is integral to the Nazi Zombie plot, but there’s no indications he’s aware of the exact nature of the weapon and is clearly being strong-armed into it.
Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Hillary.
Lampshade Hanging: The Irish mock the American tendency to assume everyone in the world has huge piles of guns in easy access.
- Another bit has someone call the infected townsfolk “zombies.” While everyone is obviously thinking it, the staggering tastelessness gets him a bunch of dirty looks.
Most Writers Are Writers: John Pender.
Our Zombies Are Different: They’re alive scientific zombies who are utterly silent and aren’t necessarily killed by a bullet to the head.
Rescue Romance: Hillary and Martin Taylor. A surprising number of other examples.
Survival Horror: A rare non-game example, it follows the tropes basically to the letter. The townsfolk have one desperate concern, survival.
Those Wacky Nazis: The zombie plague is of Third Reich origins. In a rare subversion, the ludicrous nature of the bio-weapon is treated with complete seriousness and the author even includes historical figures. They might as well have been preparing to use mustard gas as opposed to a zombie plague.
The Virus: Of course.
Zombie Apocalypse: Of the “small city is infected” variety.