Need to know the title and/or author of book that tells about a comet passing close to earth making zombies?

Question

In the book the media start calling it Lazarus Syndrome because the dead don't stay dead and start to rise. The first case is a black man trying to kill/eat his family and the cops think he's on PCP because bullets won't bring him down. The comet that travels close to the earth makes people sick and I believe it casts a weird sickly light to the daytime. I vaguely remember a part in the book where someone has to break in somewhere and I think they're may
be some zombies that become intelligent. I just can't remember the title or author and I think it's the best undead fiction I've ever read.

Answer 1

Night of the Comet:

"Plot Summary for
Night of the Comet (1984)
Two pretty high school girls (one a cheerleader!) don't like their mother or her new boyfriend ("Daddy would have gotten us Uzis!"). One morning, they wake up to find that everybody in Los Angeles has been turned to dust by a Comet except them, a guy who looks like Erik Estrada, some zombies and the occupants of a secret underground government installation.

Summary written by Mark Logan {[e-mail]}

Two girls from the Valley wake up to find that a passing comet has eradicated their world and left behind a mysterious red-dust and a pack of cannibal mutants. With the help of a friendly truck driver, the girls save the earth from a villainous "think tank," karate chop their way through flesh-eating zombies, and, of course, find time to go to the mall.

Summary written by Jaime Kidwell

Two sisters, high school seniors in the early 1980s, awaken one morning to blood red skies and the realization that the human race has been wiped out. It becomes apparant that anyone who was not surrounded by steel when the Earth recently passed through the tail of Haley's comet has been reduced to a pile of red ash (the trace elements of human chemical makeup.) They encounter a rebellious Native American man and take over the air waves at a local radio station in an attempt to get help. Unfortunately, they attract the attention of a group of scientists who knew what the effects of the comet would be. They hid underground in a steel laboratory, but idiotically left the vents open. Now, as various survivors of the comet who were only partially surrounded by steel are decaying into flesh-hungry zombies, the scientists are attempting to come up with a vaccine made of the blood of people who were not infected by the comet. Thus the trio must fight their way past not only roving packs of the cannibalistic dead, but also outsmart a pack of scientists desperate not to become that way themselves"

Answer 2

Sounds like a strange version of George A. Romero's Night of The Living Dead - though the comet thing is of no particular meaning in the movie - anyway, it looks like there's a novel:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671437682/sr=1-2/qid=1154991663/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-8419519-6532901?ie=UTF8&s=books

Answer 3

Stephen King's movie/book was called Maximum Overdrive.

The "book" your talking about sounds like Night of the Living Dead the movie by George Romero

Answer 4

Oh hell yeah! You're talking about Zombie Comet! Man, post again when you get to the part where the sheriff gets "the plan" and the comet is like "whatever, here's some more zombies for you pig!"

Answer 5

There is a comic book called Fear the Dead that talks about Lazarus Syndrome but I don't know if that's what you're looking for.

Answer 6

That sounds like the movie "Night of the Living Dead". Maybe there's a book about it, too.
Sounds good. I'd like to read it.

Answer 7

Wet Work by Philip Nutman (Paperback - Jun 1993)

Answer 8

Sounds like Stephen King... can't remember the title... or was that the one about the cars and machines coming alive... hmm... anyone?