The Resurrectionist by Ben Adams is an extraterrestrial comedy that follows John Abernathy, a former private detective, has just landed back on Earth. While in Las Vegas, the local sheriff and colleague calls on his help to investigate a burglary by an unknown and strange being. As they track down the culprit, a soldier who has now morphed into a half man half rabbit hybrid, John realizes there is only one man capable of this atrocity - Colonel Hollister, the man leading the government research into life on other planets and also the man responsible for kidnapping his father eighteen years previously. John sets off for his research facility in order to rescue his father, stop future experiments and also reverse the soldier back to normality. Colonel Hollister’s mission to create superhuman soldiers, called Project PR, must be stopped before devastation is caused. John has little time to stop him but can he trust those closest to him or do they have a hidden agenda too?

The Resurrectionist by Ben Adams is a tale that takes an ingenious and humorous look at the conspiracy theory that asks is there life on other planets? What if there were people on Earth who were actually extraterrestrials? The author has created a superb tale of the search for truth behind these questions. John Abernathy is such a multi layered character; he is a hero with a huge heart who fights injustice wherever he sees it. I absolutely loved the comedy dialogue throughout which was well placed and not included for a cheap laugh. There was such an eclectic mix of characters, especially Leadbelly. Colonel Hollister was a callous narcissist and a perfect villain. This book covered family relationships and the love of a parent for a child, the search for truth from the depths of a government research facility and the fight to save a town from destruction. The story was excellently researched, with suspense and plot twists in all the right places. The ending was another twist and one I did not expect.

Not very long ago, John discovered that he is a hybrid Sagittarian, part human, part alien, from another star system. He is slowly coming to terms with his new-found powers when he is called upon by the local sheriff to assist with an investigation into some pretty strange goings-on. The Resurrectionist by Ben Adams goes on to chronicle how those same goings-on get very strange indeed as John and the sheriff discover a man-sized rabbit armed with sharp claws and studded with horny protrusions. The rabbit appears to be an experiment gone wrong from a secret base at Los Alamos. Together with an Elvis lookalike named Leadbelly, the foursome embark on a journey to try to get the rabbit back to human form; a journey during which they will encounter outlandish challenges and increasingly surreal dangers and life-altering revelations, a journey which at its climax will involve resurrection of the dead and will leave the very fate of humankind in the balance.

The Resurrectionist is an unusual book and I am not sure if I ‘got it’. Ben Adams is a San Francisco Bay Area author and with me being based on the other side of the pond in the Scottish Highlands, I think a few of the similes and allusions may have passed me by. Some of the humorous situations seemed a bit long-winded, particularly the scene in the prison cell with Mrs Morris and the sheriff’s deputy, but there were also beautifully written sections like the one with Rosa and Officer Mudflap. The metaphors were sometimes overblown and to a great extent unnecessary but they seemed to be part of the author’s wry-humoured style. However, the characters are well-drawn and the narrative moves at a brisk pace, introducing many original ideas and a plethora of alien concepts. One for the Earth-based Men in Black style sci-fi fans, I think.

The Resurrectionist is a surreal work of humorous fiction by author Ben Adams. Landing somewhere on the sliding scale between Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Donnie Darko, the giant rabbit of this tale is a freaky half-man, half-rabbit hybrid belonging to scientist Alvin Hollister, a man linked to the study of extraterrestrial life. This terrifying and surreal beast falls into the path of our hero, private investigator John Abernathy, who happens to have a few alien connections of his own. When John is given the job of finding the rabbit and returning the creature to a more natural state, a wild adventure ensues with many twists, turns and special guest stars along the way.

Ben Adams takes his readers from the sublime to the ridiculous and back through every chapter of this very amusing tale. It is certainly a novel which has to be read with tongue in cheek, but as it’s a relatively short and quick read, the enjoyment factor certainly outweighed the suspension of disbelief for me. John Abernathy is a highly relatable hero, and even though he too has extraterrestrial roots, he still reacts to the absurd things he’s experiencing in a way that most people would find endearing. I liked the New Mexico setting very much, harking back to little hints of Roswell and the military’s influence on the study of alien life. The creature itself was pretty terrifying too, and overall I’d say The Resurrectionist is a fast-paced and well-imagined work that is sure to please readers of diverse fiction.