Trouble in the Heartland

Truman Bonner is used to battling personal demons, but an encounter with a parasitic imp leaves him shaken to the core. He locks the imp in a secret cell beneath Deadwood, hoping never to encounter the evil entity again. Then Truman's wife disappears from their homestead after a late-night argument, and Truman and his son, Isaac, set out to bring her safely home. Confronted by a series of harrowing supernatural ordeals, the trail leads them back to the imp's macabre prison. Casualties mount, innocence is lost, and before the family is reunited, more than one person will have made a deal with the devil.

BOTTLED SPIRITS by Adrian Ludens is a western supernatural story set in the Badlands of South Dakota. After the initial imprisonment of the imp, the pace is a little slow and the storyline meanders a bit, but, once everything falls into place, readers are able to see how interconnected the characters are, giving the story the depth and drama of an old world saga.

The author is so careful with historical details, this novelette comes across as an alternative history of Deadwood, implying the imp is the reason for the Badlands' reputation. One could easily imagine Ludens telling this story by a campfire, with coyotes howling in the background.

Bottled Spirits is the perfect example of the originality and creativity readers can expect from the Grave Marker series.

As always,
AstraDaemon