Review – For A Few Souls More by Wile E. Young

Sequel to the excellent The Magpie Coffin, Wile E. Young has produced an epic, blood-soaked splatter western with For A Few Souls More. Brutal, unrelenting and completely no-holds-barred, it’s as extreme as I’ve read.

Still beholden to his cursed gun, Salem Covington visits one of his old teachers as she clings to her deathbed. Came to bring her last rites and send her off with pure voodoo to a peaceful rest, Covington, the Black Magpie, learns his own time is counting down. An enemy has found a way to undo the man who can’t be killed by any gun; the path to those secrets is covered in sin and gore. Kidnapping pregnant women for an awful sacrifice, the man has crossed a line few understand other than Covington.

When a young gunslinger comes to him, talking of her mother’s stories about the Black Magpie, he realises she is his daughter. Her vengeance and his need to fulfil his contract with Hell sees the pair begin to track down the kidnappers. Leaving behind a trail of blood, the pair discover that their quarry are more than men; reanimated killers from Covington’s past, they are fuelled by a dark magic with but one purpose.

The further Covington travels, the more terrible things arise. And, in it all, he finds himself courted by the Devil and Death herself, each vying for his services. Partnering up with Jake Howe, once again, and a few other hardened bounty hunters, they ride for a showdown that speaks of an end as gruesome as imaginable. True to its splatterpunk nature, For A Few Souls More holds nothing back, limitless in its brutality and unbridled violence. It’s a dark path Covington has traveled; forged in the pit of human cruelty and tempered by the gun he wields, he is a harbinger of death.

Giving nod to another brilliant story in the Death’s Head Press library, the story churns with supernatural bizarreness and magical weirdness, awful cruelty and terrible horror. Once again hinting at depths to the tapestry that makes up these splatter westerns, For A Few Souls More is journey into darkness. Beyond revenge and far from redemption, it speaks to the lengths humanity are willing to go. But, in that seeking, are the lines in the sand so easily crossed where everything that was becomes lost.

Stylistically engaging with a unique cadence, For A Few Souls More is an uncompromising, violent, mystical horror of epic proportions.

Review copy

Published by Death’s Head Press

Review – How The Skin Sheds by Chad Lutzke

Splatter Westerns are fast becoming a favourite of mine thanks to Death’s Head Press, and How The Skin Sheds just reinforced that feeling. Fast, fierce and totally uncompromising, it’s a brutal tale of revenge and retribution.

When Garrett arrives at his sisters remote ranch, he can sense something amiss even before he enters the house. What he finds is terrible; his sister eviscerated and his niece, Nadine, raped. As openings go, it doesn’t get much more awful. Determining to exact revenge, Garrett and Nadine head over to recruit the best man he knows, former slave Franklin. An unlikely trio, they head out and soon find the trail of the killer in the form of more mutilated bodies. However, in this wild and dreadful frontier, there’s more to fear than just a serial murderer.

Against the odds, and facing down racists and madmen, Garrett and the others find themselves in the thick of a nightmarish hunt; one that sees them becoming the hunted. It quickly becomes more about survival than revenge though the trio never lose faith in each other. Taking social inequality to task and pitching supernatural strangeness against human evil, How The Skin Sheds is a blood soaked story of unflinching proportions. Wild weirdness and gory, gritty prose, it’s not for the faint of heart.

At only a hundred pages, it’s a fast read not least because of the engaging writing. Dark, violent and massively entertaining, How The Skin Sheds is another great addition to this splatter western tapestry of mayhem.

Review copy

Published by Death’s Head Press

Review – Hunger on the Chisholm Trail by M. Ennenbach

A brutal take on the monsters that haunt the wild lands way out west, Hunger in the Chisholm Trail is a fast and furious read. A small settlement and a cast of hardscrabble characters, it’s a bloody and grim tale of survival.

Often, when a prologue opens with a powerful, and in this case, gory set-up, it’s clear the book will be a page turner. Hunger on the Chisholm Trail sees three criminals string up a Native American and begin to question him on the whereabouts of some treasure. They don’t get far. What emerges from the undergrowth is a terrifying and spiteful monster. Whilst it kills and eats the men, it lets the young Native go and so begins an awful trail of death and destruction.

As cattle ranchers drive their stock toward market, the small settlement of Dunstan eagerly awaits them. The passing trade will be a huge boon to the village and a break in the boredom of living so far out from civilisation. Populated by an number of intriguing characters, another traveller on his way along the Chisholm Trail ends up in jail. Suspicious of his motives, at first, the sheriff befriends him and learns that there are more horrors abroad than just evil men. When the cattle drive doesn’t arrive, but for one nearly dead man, that evil comes knocking at the saloon door of Dunstan. It lands to the sheriff and the stranger to band the town together to face off whatever vile monster has come to visit.

In a cleverly built up narrative, all factors point to the village whilst, simultaneously, painting the monster at large in a terribly detailed light. Karl, the travelling stranger, is an intriguing perspective to learn of supernatural evil with an equally interesting backstory. And, as the rest of the town are fleshed out, the horror that awaits them looms large. When it does make its entrance, it’s vicious. The violence is brutal and unforgiving but it’s the true ending of the tale that holds the real sting.

Hunger on the Chisholm Trail can boast a truly nasty monster and the action is extreme. However, the undercurrent of supernatural evil that resides under the dusty plains of the trail adds a layer of texture to this story that elevates it. More than just a story of survival against a terrifyingly enemy, it’s a snapshot of the large portrait that these splatter westerns create and, for that, it’s glorious.

Bloody, violent and thrilling, it’s a great slice of western horror with a serious bite.

Review copy

Published by Death’s Head Press

Review – Red Station by Kenzie Jennings

Another addition from Death’s Head Press, Red Station is everything splatter western promises to be. Dark, brutal and relentless, this house on the prairie is built on blood.

A stand alone novella like the rest in the splatter western collection, Red Station is a set piece focusing on a way station for weary travellers. Alone within vast plains, in the middle of nothing, the house is a huge, sprawling oddity. But for four passengers on a stagecoach, each heading out toward the frontier, it’s the only place they can rest on their long journey. Promised comfort and provisions by the driver, a young chatty man, the house is a welcome respite as night draws in.

The hosts, a German family, seem eager to welcome their guests. But, for one passenger, a woman named Clyde Northway, things don’t seem right. Her fellow travellers, a married couple and a doctor, are taken in by the splendour of the house and the wily ways of one of the family’s daughters respectively. It’s not until dinner when the doctor is unceremoniously executed, that Clyde’s suspicions are brutally confirmed.

From there, it’s a fight for survival against the evil family. And, with no where to flee, there’s no option but to kill or be killed. Terrifying circumstances, awful and twisted antagonists, and a battle to the death. Not wanting to give away too much, I’ll say this; it’s a fast read, splattered with blood and some savage twists in the tale. Nicely wrought characters and a horrifying set-up make for a gripping read.

Violent, cinematic, Red Station is a great, one shot piece of horror.

Review copy

Published by Death’s Head Press

Review – The Magpie Coffin by Wile E. Young

My first foray into splatterpunk, albeit a splatter western, The Magpie Coffin was a stylistic ride of revenge and strange magics. Grim, gritty and gory in equal measure, it set the pace early and never slowed.

Woken by an unusual and strange storm, Salem Covington intrinsically understands that something fundamental has occurred. It’s ratified when some drunken soldiers regale the story of a murdered shaman and his white buffalo. That shaman, Dead Bear, happens to be a native People and one who taught Salem many things. Things that Salem warped to his own cause which all who cross his path come to regret.

After killing the soldiers he sets out across the land seeking the men who murdered his teacher. It’s a tale of vengeance as epic as any and just as blood soaked. In the company of a young soldier whom he offers an ultimatum, Salem begins the hunt. And with each turn more is revealed about the man summoned to avenge the spirit of the Dead Bear. A known killer, Salem is the owner of a Gun with its own devilish spirit; one that bestows protection but which comes with an awfully heavy price. But, he’s more. A practitioner of mystical workings and spells, charms and evils, Salem can cross to the other side and back, walking the spirit line and learning much of what he seeks.

His quarry, just as bloodthirsty and vicious, find in Salem an unswerving force. Each showdown is brutal and each man that falls to the Gun is deserving of their last moments of terror. But, it is the Gun and Salem’s backstory that really makes for such a brilliant read. Hints at deals with the devil and a horrifying undercurrent of violence, Salem’s history is a fascinating tale of a man, almost immortal and yet twisted by fate.

Hugely atmospheric and written in an engrossing style, Salem, the Black Magpie, is a fantastically dark character striding through a lawless land peopled by evil. A brilliant blend of horror, action, magic and mayhem, The Magpie Coffin is an effortlessly readable ride into the grim, gritty landscape of splatter western.

My copy

Published by Death’s Head Press