Author: J.H. Kimbrell
First published: 2022
Contains spoilers
The blurb: Arizona Territory, 1888 - The train doesn't stop in Mica Bend anymore. The silver mines are played out and the post office is about to close, but there are still people. People who will not be missed if they disappear. A small western town going ghost is an ideal buffet for a clan of vampires working their way across the southwest.
Recently widowed and grieving, town marshal Hiram Wells is confounded after two prisoners are found brutally and bizarrely murdered in his own jail. Then body parts are discovered half-buried in the desert near town and his oldest daughter goes missing, driving Hiram on a desperate search for answers that may lie in the pulp stories his children love to read. With time running out, Hiram finds himself caught in a war with an ancient enemy, his resolve utterly tested and his humanity at stake.
The review: Vampires and the Wild West – it has been done but there is plenty of scope in the concept and I’m pleased to see that this novel flexes well within that scope and creates a satisfying read that feels authentic to the Wild West genre as well as the vampire megatext.
Mica Bend is a town that is dying and the mayor invites a theatrical troupe to the town in order to boost morale. The troupe are, of course, vampires and their thralls and the invitation to the town reminded me of Salem’s Lot, as did the attack on the town generally – though the vampires are not for making a whole bunch of vampires and that was a divergence point. That is not to say that this apes the famous King novel, just that the attack on a town and invitation overtone (explicit in this) brought the older book to mind.
It is within the desire to not create other vampires that we can start looking at the lore. The vampirism is a (supernatural) disease and if someone is bitten then they contract that disease, this stage of turning (whether it be a survivor, a victim killed or if diseased flesh is eaten by a scavenger such as a coyote) the vampires call the pestilence. If left to run its course it will turn the infected into a revenant, mindless and instinct driven. The infected blood of the pestilence is black and we see a vampire cleanse themselves of such blood that has got on them by facing sunlight. A noble (the main, intelligent vampires) can intervene before the pestilence fully consumes a victim and ensure they are blooded – drink the blood of a noble – to properly turn them. Equally a human can be fed the noble blood to make them a thrall and this gives extended life.
The thralls can go out into sunlight and step on holy ground, which the vampires and revenants cannot – the sunlight was interesting. Given the theme of penny dreadfuls within the story (which is where some of the lore is garnered from in text) sunlight shouldn’t be an issue (having not been introduced to the megatext then). I’d have forgiven the conceit anyway, sunlight being such a cornerstone now, but the author addressees this and makes it clear that the sunlight bit isn’t in the pulp fiction of the time. The impact of religious things (hallowed ground, crosses and holy water) is tied to the energies such things produce. The vampires can move with extreme speed, turn to mist, control weather and transform – in particular we see transformation into an owl (specifically a strix). They have a really strong line in eye mojo and we get the story touching on a wider world and a conflict within the vampire society.
The prose is very strong, with Kimbrell creating a believable world with strong characters and a story that does hold you. The historical accuracy of the Wild West world is something I can’t speak to but it felt authentic from the point of view of someone whose knowledge is garnered from the films set in the Old West, and given the novel grounds itself within media this seems fitting. This is a good read, a strong entry in the vampire/Wild West sub-genre and certainly worth your time. 8 out of 10.
In Paperback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
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