SUMMARY:
Cora and her husband hunt things - things that shouldn't exist.
When the marshal of Leadville, Colorado, comes across a pair of mysterious deaths, he turns to Cora to find the creature responsible, but if Cora is to overcome the unnatural tide threatening to consume the small town, she must first confront her own tragic past as well as her present.

Cora and her husband Ben are bounty hunters on paranormal creatures. In this book we follow them while they are solving a couple of cases in a small western town. If you are not a lover of western novels, better skip this book because this book has all the elements: sheriffs, deputies, saloon, whores, miners, trains, etc.

One of the things I liked when I read the summary for this book was that main characters will be a married couple. That was a refreshing change from solo hunters/assassins. I was hoping for something different and was disappointed when Cora and her husband behaved more like partners and platonic friends than married couple. But we get an explanation for this in the end, so now in retrospective I understand the reasons for that.

So, the main focus of this book is not a couple - only Cora Oglesby. All important character development we get is related to her. Everybody else, even her husband Ben, are neglected.
Maybe this would not be such a big deal to me if I liked Cora as character, but I didn't. I like female kick-ass sassy heroines with a bit of dry humor, but I can only describe Cora as bitchy and grumpy. And her irrational desire to start a fight with everything (even a tree branch!) was irritating me.

To make my reading of this book even more painful, the plot development in first 60% of the book is very slow. I was struggling with reading and more and more contemplating marking this book as DNF, when at about 65% there was a big twist & discovery that finally got me intrigued and interested. I finished the rest of the book in one sitting, literally glued to the pages.

So how to rate a book that is 60% 2 and 40% 4-5 star read? I settled on 3.
I am adding the next part of the series to my tbr list, because although case is resolved and there is no cliffhanger, I am interested to read how Cora's character will develop in the future.

I recommend this book to: lovers of western novels with a dash of horror.

Disclaimer: I was given a free ebook by the publisher Angry Robot via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

My Rating: 3 out of 5