Black Static

We'll stick with the werewolf theme for the next entry in what's turning out to be the Short, Scary Tales Publishing retrospective here at the Case Notes blog, but that's as far as the resemblance goes between Paul Kane's Blood Red and The Wolves of El Diablo by Eric Red, which was issued by SST as a trade paperback in August 2017.

Imagine The Magnificent Seven with only three gunfighters and replace the Mexican bandits with rapacious werewolves. That as far as I can infer is basically the schemata of this book's predecessor The Guns of Santa Sangre, in which Tucker, Fix, and Bodie took care of business in the village of San Thomas and then rode off into the sunset.

But now a new pack of werewolves, led by Azul, the brother of previous bandit chief Mosca, is on the rampage and has the three amigos in their sights. Pilar, the girl Tucker left behind, rides out from San Thomas to warn the three gunslingers and bring them fresh silver bullets, the only way to kill werewolves. Tucker and gang attack a train travelling from the mining town of El Diablo, but there's a nasty surprise waiting with a three way fight between outlaws, werewolves, and the Mexican army at the end of which Tucker, Fix, and Bodie are the prisoners of Colonel Higuerra. It's only a pause in the plot though, and pretty soon it's every man for himself on a runaway steam train overrun with werewolves.

Eric Red's reputation rests on his screenwriting (The Hitcher, Near Dark) and when reviewing Don't Stand So Close, a previous SST release from his pen, back in Black Static #37 I expressed some reservations about his ability to transfer those undoubted skills to prose work, but this book I'm happy to report is a big improvement. Okay, it's not great writing and there are one or two WTF moments as regards plot credibility, but Red gets the job done and the end result is a fast paced and fun read, one where the pulp sensibility and pulse pounding excitement outweigh other considerations.

There are some competently drawn characters, albeit with little depth to them. Of the three amigos, Tucker is the ideas man, Fix the quick shooter, and ox-strong Bodie is the muscle; all three come across well, with distinguishing character traits and some engaging banter between them to reinforce the impression of old friends and colleagues, people with a history. Colonel Higuerra is portrayed as an honourable man, disgusted by the corruption into which he has been coerced, someone who cares for the men under his command and has the sense to realise when he is out of his depth. Feisty and fierce, Pilar doesn't have quite as much depth as the male characters, but serves to motivate the others and holds up her end when the fighting starts.

Azul is the most interesting and fully drawn character, with her back history given in between the action scenes - how her brother and his followers were turned into werewolves, with gradual acceptance of their bestial nature and the chain of events that led to Azul's present condition as an apex predator. While Azul has a certain cunning courtesy of her long experience, she is a creature whose behaviour is dictated by her appetites, for flesh and vengeance. The same is true for the other werewolves in her pack; these are not innocent or noble animals in any sense of the words, but revel in what they do. Red is graphic in describing the painful transformation process, and also showing the complete amorality of their life, with group fucking and feasting on each others' dead bodies.

We see the werewolves in action in the very first chapter, slaughtering the clientele of a cantina, and after that the bloodletting doesn't let up for more than few pages at a time, culminating in the fire fight aboard the train, with Bodie wielding a Gatling gun, Tucker and Fix scrambling across the tops pf moving carriages, and Pilar going one on one with Azul, while the train keeps on rolling. It's all huge fun and would make a glorious action movie in the Snakes on a Plane mould, while in the sinister figures of Romulus and Remus Salazar, rulers of the mining town of El Diablo, Red lays the groundwork and leaves a plot hook for a third volume in The Men Who Walk Like Wolves series, but checking Amazon that volume looks to still be in development limbo.