Joe McKinney

Joe McKinney (1968-2021) was an American horror and crime author who spent his career as a police officer with the San Antonio Police Department, rising to patrol sergeant and working as a homicide detective and disaster-mitigation specialist. His procedural background shaped his best-known work, the Dead World series of zombie-apocalypse novels that began with Dead City and continued through Apocalypse of the Dead, Flesh Eaters, and Quarantined, blending police-procedural realism with large-scale outbreak horror. He also wrote the post-apocalyptic series The Retreat and contributed to the shared-world V Wars anthology series. Beyond novels, McKinney published short fiction, edited anthologies, and wrote for the true-crime outlet In Cold Blog. His work often examined institutional and gender dynamics within law enforcement during disaster.