Black Static

Having seen first werewolves and then zombies running amok, courtesy of Short, Scary Tales Publications, logic dictates that vampires should be our next monster on this whistle stop tour of the weird West, but instead we go right past the blood bank and to the land of Satan and Lovecraftian Old Ones. I put this upgrade down to the fact that for Hell's Bounty, which was released by SST in August 2016 as a signed, limited edition hardcover, we have two writers, Joe R. Lansdale and John L. Lansdale, and as everybody knows two writers means double the trouble.

Anyway, bounty hunter Smith is in the town of Falling Rock, where he manages to blow himself up by short fusing a stick of dynamite. You would think such carelessness wouldn't endear him to potential employers, but devils can't be choosers and so Satan gives our hero a shot at redemption. A renegade demon has crossed over to Falling Rock and taken possession of town bully Trumbo Quill, and when the stars are right he is going to summon the Old Ones in the expectation that he will rule on their behalf. Riding the indomitable stallion Shadow and with a belt full of silver bullets, Smith heads back to Falling Rock, where the demon has raised an army of flesh eating ghouls, with a force shield cutting the town off from the rest of the west. With the few survivors from pre-demon days, including Payday, a prostitute with a righteous anger at Smith, and a cadre of western bad folk supplied by Satan, our hero sets out to save the day.

Okay, sometimes the authors go just a tad too far, but overall this is a hugely entertaining slice of storytelling served up in true gonzo style. I loved the back story, with Satan detailing his relationship with Him upstairs and other, assorted entities, including those of a Lovecraftian provenance. The invention never lets up, with Smith's visit to Hell a definite highlight, but plenty of other scenes that come close to matching it, so that you constantly wonder what Lansdale and Lansdale will come up with next and how they'll top it, as they invariably do.

The characters are well drawn, with even Quill given a sympathetic tweak before he goes full on evil thanks to his demonic possessor. The chemistry between Smith and Payday is convincing, though I'll admit her initial hostility to Smith seemed slightly unreasonable in the circumstances, as Smith himself points out. Smith is a mystery man, a hero cut in the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western mould, with no first name and nothing revealed about his past. He is strictly an action not words kind of guy, but he does have some restraints, preferring to incapacitate when possible rather than kill, and he does come to care about the people whose lives he lays on the line. Payday is the apocryphal tart with a heart, though it's made out of something far more durable than gold, and she bristles with attitude and ferocity, but can show a softer side when appropriate. The other characters are every bit as engaging, with Doc and Undertaker and the Kid, to name just a few, all bringing their own personalities to the mix, while the quintet of 'hired' guns - Quantrill, Jesse James, Bloody Bill Anderson, Belle Starr, and Wild Bill Hickock - are larger than life killers, each intent on murder and mayhem. Quill himself is perhaps the most impressive creation, both before and after his demonic transformation, a bully and a braggart, so sure of his own entitlement, the kind of guy you love to hate.

There's plenty of action, with firefights against the ghoul hordes and personal combat with a winged Quill, gun play and explosions aplenty (Smith redeems himself when it comes to cutting his fuses, thankfully). And one quick example of a time when I think the novel goes a little too far for credibility - the idea of ghouls walking on stilts to get past a layer of silver dust on the floor of the Assay Office I'm afraid doesn't evoke anything from me other than laughter, and not the good kind. While on the subject of laughter, Lansdale and brother also introduce plenty of moments of black humour, as with some of the dialogue between the ghouls and the phrasing of certain descriptions, which come with their tongue firmly in cheek and are as appropriate as they are over the top and bawdy.

The last third of the book is taken up with a screenplay for a film based on the story, and it's interesting to compare the two and see what changes the authors envisaged. It would be great to one day see this story on the silver screen.

Hell's Bounty is not Joe R. Lansdale at his very best, though it is an improvement on the John L. novel I reviewed earlier this week. If you come to the book expecting nothing more than to be entertained and with a willingness to suspend disbelief as necessary, then you're unlikely to be disappointed. Written with both barrels blazing, Hell's Bounty is a lot of two fisted fun, and that's the rootin' tootin' truth straight from the horse's mouth. I liked it a lot.