RETURN OF THE WESTERN
Sadie Hartmann “Mother Horror”
April 14th, 2023
From bestselling author Alex Grecian comes a folk horror epic about a ragtag posse that must track down a witch through a wild west beset by demons and ghosts–and where death is always just around the bend.
Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bonafide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward Rabbit. On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure – but no sense of purpose – and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. And as their posse grows, so too does the danger. Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that witch or die trying. Written with the devilish cadence of Stephen Graham Jones and the pulse-pounding brutality of Nick Cutter, Red Rabbit is a supernatural adventure of luck and misfortune. PRE-ORDER
Sadie’s Recommendation: I freaking loved this. It’s weird, quirky, and heartwarming. Josh Rountree has chops. I hope everyone will fall in love with Charlie Fish as much as I did; definitely a new Rountree fan.
As always, Floyd Betts rides into town alone. He arrives for his father’s funeral, but he is returning to Galveston, Texas, with two orphaned siblings he has rescued. Nellie, who is descended from a long line of witches, has visions from other people’s minds. Hank, her impulsive younger brother, just wants to break out his outsized revolver. Along the way home, Floyd, Nellie, and Hank encounter a dubious traveling salesman, Professor Finn, and his henchman, Kentucky Jim. They are struggling to capture a fish man in order to put him on cruel display. When Nellie taps into the peril of the gentle Charlie Fish, Floyd’s makeshift family expands to include the lost, two-legged amphibian. With the circus charlatans in pursuit, ominous winds are picking up from an impending hurricane. Meanwhile, all Charlie Fish wants is to return to his home at sea. PRE- ORDER
HOT IRON AND COLD BLOOD An Anthology of the Old West
Desperados and yellow-bellies be warned: These ain’t your typical westerns … Herein find legendary masters of anomalous Western and Horror stories— along with a posse of budding word-slingers— who all bring you an electrifying and frightening collection of extraordinary tales set in the Old West and beyond…Within these pages, the improbable is made real: cowboys encounter a chimeric critter of the night; dinosaurs return as massive poltergeists; Chinese railroad workers are haunted by invisible frights; outlaws experience Cronenbergian body-horror; fallen-light stalks mother and daughter upon a wintry prairie; a headless horseman roams the badlands; otherworldly creatures hunt within our domain; screaming spectral birds nest within the damned; and gunslinging women with murderous skills annihilate foolish notions of a man’s world. These are just a handful of the offerings in this body of macabre lore. So, mount your saddle horse and join this gang of rogue authors for a ride down dark trails of terror and unsettling thoroughfares that lead deep into strange, nightmarish territory. Here you gallop through places where law has no dominion and Death constantly deals a grim hand— and where the iron is red-hot and the blood drips ice-cold. Featuring stories by Joe R. Lansdale, Edward Lee, David J. Schow, Jill Girardi, R.J. Jackson, Vivian Kasley, Owl Goinback, Kenzie Jennings, Jeff Strand, Wile E. Young, and more. Edited by Patrick R. McDonoughWith an Introduction by R.J. Joseph PRE-ORDER
Sadie’s Recommendation: READ MY BOOK RESPONSE
Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear.
The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women” taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it–except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.
Crafted by a modern master of magical suspense, Lone Women blends shimmering prose, an unforgettable cast of adventurers who find horror and sisterhood in a brutal landscape, and a portrait of early-twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen. And at its heart is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past–or redeem it. BUY NOW
Sadie’s Recommendation: I finished reading this book for the second time this morning and I’m even more impressed than I was before, which is really saying something because I fell hard for this book the first time. As soon as I hit publish on this post, I’m jumping into my review but the short of it is this: I am telling you with as loud of a voice as I can, this is it. This is the stuff right here. You read this for yourself and tell me I’m not right. BUY IT HERE
When George Miller is killed in the mines of Yellow Hill, his wife and children are left to try and piece their lives back together. Tabitha Miller, George’s widow, is thrown into deeper chaos when she discovers that George’s death had nothing to do with the cave’s collapse but was caused by some terrible predator deep within the earth. His death covered up by the mine’s Proprietor-Jeremiah Hart.
In nearby Big Spring, freed slave-turned-occult bounty hunter Gilbert Ptolemy arrives with his adopted son in search of a murderous vampire. New revelations in Yellow Hill draw the duo toward the struggling Miller family, the strange mine, and the horrors lurking within.
The Miller and Ptolemy families are pitted against mundane and supernatural forces in this Weird West adventure. Family struggles, heart-stopping gunfights, and nightmare creatures from dark realms abound in this award-winning novel from C.S. Humble.
“Humble writes with rare passion in the tradition of Robert E. Howard and a young Stephen King.” – Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All
Sadie’s Recommendation: READ MY BOOK RESPONSE
In this action packed horror novel set in the old west, Margaret “Peggy” Thomas’ peaceful life is turned upside down after the murder of the local sheriff, her husband, James. Peggy, accompanied by a group of misfit companions, will stop at nothing to face her husband’s killer, and time is running out. Del Howison has crafted a dark, nuanced tale about justice, found family, and the choices we make in the throes of desperation when faced with nothing to lose. The Survival of Margaret Thomas transcends genre into a tale of hope, heart, and revenge. BUY HERE
Margaret Thomas lives a quiet life with her husband James in the small town of Bleak Knob, Missouri. Until one afternoon James is gunned down on the sidewalk in front of her, and she’s left to care for the land and herself, alone. With more questions than answers, and years of grief and alcohol, a sudden telegram announcing the upcoming trial of one of James’ killers pushes Peggy into action. accompanied by groups of misfit companions, Peggy will stop at nothing to face her husband’s killer, and time is running out.
Powerful and wrought with adventure, The Survival of Margaret Thomas is the newest in a long line of great American road novels.
“Memories are what we take with us, and what we leave behind. As Americans, we all carry, like memories we can’t shake off, rich veins of the frontier myths that gave birth to our literature. Del Howison mines these wonderfully.” -James Sallis, author of Drive