A Plague of Zombies by Diana Gabaldon, published in 2011, is a gripping historical novella from the acclaimed Lord John series, a companion set to the broader Outlander universe. Set in Jamaica in 1761, the story follows Lord John Grey, a high-ranking British officer with sharp intellect and guarded passions, as he confronts an uprising amidst swirling rumors of supernatural occurrences. Positioned between the events of Voyager and Drums of Autumn, this novella not only enriches Lord John’s backstory but also bridges events and characters connected to the larger Outlander saga, steeped in intrigue, colonial tension, and eerie folklore.
Plot Summary
Amidst the searing heat of a Jamaican June in 1761, Lieutenant-Colonel Lord John Grey stepped onto the sultry soil of Spanish Town with a battalion at his back and a charge in his hands – to quell a rebellion and restore order to an island steeped in fear. Slaves were escaping. Plantations were burning. Rumors of the dead walking among the living hissed through the sugarcane like wind through dry leaves. Yet it was the quiet dread in the eyes of Governor Derwent Warren that suggested something deeper, something festering in the shadows beyond mere insurrection.
From the moment he entered the governor’s residence, Lord John sensed decay – not just in the crumbling mansion with its sweating walls and skittering vermin, but in the men who held power. Warren, already drunk and trembling, flinched from a harmless yellow snake with the terror of a man hunted by phantoms. The maroons, descendants of runaway slaves, were advancing in a deliberate line down the mountainous spine of the island, their movements too calculated for coincidence. Their latest act – the murder of a planter named Abernathy – had ignited panic, but something about the reports felt off, too clean, too convenient.
Grey’s inquiries met with evasions. The governor’s secretary, Gideon Dawes, seemed polite but wary, his helpfulness laced with unease. Captain Cresswell, the official liaison with the maroons, was missing. No explanation. No ransom. Simply vanished. A map stained with old ink and fresh fear revealed the path of destruction – a crooked scar running toward Kingston. One of the plantations near the edge of this advancing front bore a name Grey recognized like a whisper from a darker time: Twelvetrees.
He took the news with composure but felt a cold pressure settle into his chest. Edward Twelvetrees had once nearly destroyed him, accusing Grey of a relationship with a man now long dead. That wound had healed over, but the name still carried a sting. Now, a new Twelvetrees – Philip – had inherited the land. It was Philip’s sister Nancy, however, whose thinly veiled contempt for Governor Warren hinted at secrets unspoken. She did not fear the maroons. She feared the rot within the governor’s house.
That rot proved not merely metaphorical. In the stillness of a breathless night, a soft knock came at Grey’s door. Rodrigo, a servant with the build of a statue and the voice of a whisper, entered bearing a warning. The Obeah man, a practitioner of the island’s hidden lore, had sent him. The message was chilling – something bad would happen. The governor was marked. A zombie had come for him.
Grey, pragmatic and steeped in the rational disciplines of Europe, did not dismiss the message. He had traveled too far, seen too much, to doubt the power of belief. He posted guards outside Warren’s chamber and retired, wary but unconvinced. What followed defied even his seasoned expectations.
The stench came first – rot and corruption, thick as fog. Then the hands – cold, calloused, and far too strong for a man freshly roused from sleep. The thing that assaulted him in the darkness had the shape of a man but moved with the soulless hunger of the dead. Grey fought it with all the strength he could summon, hurling furniture, slashing with a dagger. He bled it. That, more than anything else, chilled him. Blood meant life. This was no reanimated corpse. This was a man wearing the shroud of myth.
When he rose, panting amid shattered glass and blood-streaked linens, Grey understood: the rebellion was not merely of slaves and fire. Someone within the governor’s circle had summoned fear to serve their ends. Zombies did not walk, but men did – cloaked in horror, masked in superstition, intent on murder.
At dawn, he summoned his officers, John Fettes and Bob Cherry, sharp-eyed and quick-witted soldiers who could ferret out truths where diplomacy failed. They questioned Dawes, who offered little more than a flutter of excuses. Governor Warren, suddenly indisposed, refused to appear. Meanwhile, Grey rode into the highlands with a company of soldiers, ostensibly to examine defensive positions but, in truth, to confront ghosts of another kind.
At Twelvetrees plantation, Philip greeted him with the measured charm of a man unsure whether to fear or admire the British officer on his doorstep. Nancy, sharp-tongued and unflinching, pressed Grey with pointed questions. Her loathing of the governor was not born of idle gossip. She had seen things. Heard things. But her words danced at the edge of revelation, always retreating just before truth broke through.
It was a slave revolt, yes – but it was also a campaign manipulated by men in power, stoking fear for their gain, hiding crimes beneath the veil of myth. Grey began to unravel the truth. Captain Cresswell had not simply vanished. He had been silenced, his knowledge buried under the same fear that kept men like Warren drinking themselves blind. The attack on Grey was not random. It was a message. He was being watched.
He sent Cherry to question Judge Peters, the magistrate who had imprisoned two young maroons without trial – the spark that lit the powder keg. Fettes dug deeper into the careers of the previous superintendents, both of whom had disappeared under ambiguous circumstances. A pattern emerged – each man who came too close to the truth found himself ruined, vanished, or dead.
The maroons, fierce and proud, were not the monsters they were painted to be. Their settlements nestled in the hills, bound by honor and lineage. They had protested the imprisonment. They had sent word. They had waited. When their voices were ignored, fire became their language.
Grey’s final confrontation came not with the walking dead but with the living guilty. Warren, cornered and unraveling, admitted nothing but revealed everything. In his weakness, in the wine-stained edge of his voice, lay the truth. He had not summoned zombies, but he had allowed the illusion to fester, to distract from his own incompetence, perhaps even his complicity. The blood on the zombie’s hands was real, but the myth had been weaponized.
In the garden, the air smelled of salt and spice. Grey stood beneath a tree where parrots shrieked into the darkening sky and thought of the little yellow snake curled beneath his bed, harmless but feared. The rebellion would be subdued, the truth buried under treaties and punishments. Jamaica would go quiet again, but only for a while. Some ghosts never stayed buried.
Main Characters
Lord John Grey – An erudite and principled British officer, Lord John is tasked with quelling a potential slave rebellion in Jamaica. Though calm and analytical on the surface, he harbors deep personal wounds and passions beneath his uniform. His resilience and sense of duty are tested by both military chaos and the surreal horror of rumored undead threats. His arc is one of grappling with his responsibilities while uncovering the disturbing underbelly of colonial rule and confronting his own suppressed desires.
Governor Derwent Warren – The British governor of Jamaica, Warren presents a façade of decorum that rapidly unravels as Lord John arrives. Prone to fits of hysteria and haunted by fear—whether of rebellion or something more metaphysical—Warren’s frailty and secrecy become focal points of Lord John’s investigation. His character reflects the decay of authority and the psychological toll of imperial power.
Gideon Dawes – The governor’s secretary, Dawes is a plump, wary bureaucrat whose benign exterior conceals a web of evasions and omissions. Though seemingly innocuous, his reticence hints at deeper knowledge of the maroon unrest and the strange phenomena Lord John is drawn into.
Rodrigo – A composed and attractive black servant, Rodrigo becomes an unexpected messenger when he delivers a chilling warning to Lord John from an Obeah man. His brief appearances are laced with tension, mystery, and the weight of cultural knowledge dismissed by colonial authorities.
Captain Cresswell – The missing superintendent assigned to liaise with the maroons. His unexplained absence becomes a symbol of the growing instability and unexplored mysteries in the island’s highlands.
Tom Byrd – Lord John’s loyal and fastidious valet. Tom provides moments of levity and practical support, balancing Lord John’s intellectual introspection with grounded sensibilities. His superstitious nature and devotion add warmth and depth to the narrative.
Philip Twelvetrees and Nancy Twelvetrees – Siblings and plantation heirs, their interactions with Lord John are laced with unspoken history and subtle tension. Nancy, especially, plays a quietly defiant role, her disdain for the governor and veiled interest in Lord John hinting at personal and political complexities.
Theme
Colonial Power and Rebellion – The novella delves into the brutal tensions of colonial Jamaica, portraying the dread among white settlers and the burgeoning assertion of identity among maroons and slaves. The rebellion is not only political but symbolic of crumbling imperial control and the reckoning with historical wrongs.
Superstition vs. Rationality – The presence of the so-called “zombies” and the influence of an Obeah man bring mysticism into stark contrast with Lord John’s Enlightenment mindset. This tension questions the boundaries between folklore and reality, particularly in a setting where colonial narratives often dismiss native wisdom.
Repression and Identity – Both sexual and political repression underscore the story. Lord John’s concealed homosexuality mirrors the colonial regime’s attempts to suppress slave resistance. The novella subtly explores what happens when identity is forcibly hidden, and how truth claws its way to the surface.
Decay and Corruption – From Warren’s crumbling leadership to the literal stench of undead flesh, the imagery of rot pervades the narrative. It becomes a motif for the moral and institutional decay of empire, presenting a world where order is maintained by illusion rather than integrity.
Writing Style and Tone
Diana Gabaldon’s writing is rich, immersive, and meticulously detailed, balancing historical precision with narrative vigor. In A Plague of Zombies, her prose evokes the oppressive heat of the Caribbean, the claustrophobic paranoia of political unrest, and the eerie ambiance of supernatural menace. Her style blends the decorum of 18th-century dialogue with sharp internal monologues that give psychological depth to her characters, especially Lord John.
Gabaldon’s tone is an exquisite mixture of gothic suspense and military intrigue, interspersed with sly humor and subtle emotional poignancy. The novella moves fluidly between moments of tension—such as a visceral fight with a supposed zombie—and introspective interludes that reveal Lord John’s internal conflicts. The balance of rationality and mystery, reality and myth, defines the novella’s haunting yet human atmosphere. Gabaldon crafts a tale that is both a gripping adventure and a meditation on fear, identity, and power.
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