Sheriff Jeremiah Sharpe has successfully maintained the peace in the small silver mining town of Sterling Ridge and has even made the collar of his career with the capture of the notorious Bell Gang, accused of murdering a deputy in another nearby town. And he has welcomed a new school teacher, Evelyn Randall, from the East Coast to help establish the growing town’s first schoolhouse.
But Evelyn isn’t the only new thing to Sterling Ridge. After blasting begins in a previously untouched area of the mines, the workers return to the town afflicted by a never-before-seen horror, one that threatens to destroy Sterling Ridge as Jeremiah knows it.
The Deadening: Collapse is part one of a five-part serialized novel that follows the events of the Massacre of Sterling Ridge in 1868.
COLLAPSE by Jessica Meigs is far better than I expected from a zombie western. Most of the story is an overall setup for this mini-series, but absolutely necessary to feel the full impact of the horror which stumbles upon Sterling Ridge. The cast of characters is quite an interesting mix, with just enough background details to stir up concern for the residents of the mining town. The foreshadowing is also well-written: nothing too obvious, but dark enough to let readers know when to expect the nightmare to begin.
Towards the end, as the outbreak unfolds, the various one-on-one scenes highlight the contrasting reactions of the characters, and kept me hooked right up to the cliff-hanger.
I should point out, this was released in 2019, and we all know what happened in 2020. Meigs also re-released the Becoming series one at a time, not to mention publishing her new series The Unnaturals. Needless to say, the author has valid reasons for the delay of LAMENTATION, the next installment of THE DEADENING series.
Here's hoping Meigs will finally be able to return to Sterling Ridge.
As always,
AstraDaemon
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