In Gemma Files’s horror–fantasy debut, former Confederate chaplain Asher Rook has cheated death and now possesses a dark magic. He uses his power to terrorize the Wild West, leading a gang of outlaws, thieves, and killers, with his cruel lieutenant and lover, Chess Pargeter, by his side.
Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow is going undercover to infiltrate the gang, armed with a shotgun and a device that measures sorcerous energy. His job is to gain knowledge of Rook’s power and unlock its secrets. But there is someone else who has Rook in her sights: the Lady of Traps and Snares, a bloodthirsty Mayan goddess who will stop at nothing to satisfy her own desires.
Caught between the good, the bad, and the unholy, Morrow will have to ride out a storm of magical mayhem to survive, in this debut novel, the first book of Files’s “weird Western Hexslinger trilogy...[which] is chock full of hellish horrors” (Mike Allen, author of Unseaming).
Gemma Files, a former film critic, journalist, screenwriter, and teacher, has been an award-winning horror author since 1999. She has published two collections of short work; two chapbooks of speculative poetry; the “weird western” Hexslinger Series; a story-cycle; and the standalone novel Experimental Film, which won the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the 2016 Sunburst Award for Best Adult Novel. Files also has several story collections and a collection of poetry forthcoming.
Donald Corren received his education at Juilliard. He has acted on and off Broadway, played a recurring role for nine seasons on NBC's Law & Order, as well as other television parts. Corren has also written for TV and corporate clients, including the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has narrated several audiobooks.