I promised myself that this year I'd try to do more book pieces. So here you go.
Image courtesy of http://angryrobotbooks.com/
"Cora Oglesby and her husband, Ben, hunt things - Things that shouldn't exist.
When the marshall of Leadville, Colorado, comes across a pair of mysterious, bloody deaths out in the badlands, he turns to Cora to find the creature responsible. But if she is to overcome the unnatural tide threatening to consume the small town, Cora must first confront her own tragic past."
This is the first in what is clearly intended to be an ongoing series. Now there's plenty of books based around hunting supernatural beasties and a hell of a lot of them feature a kick-ass female lead.
However Lee Collins introduces a couple of elements I don't remember seeing before: Cora Oglesby is a married woman, clearly mature in years, and her hunting ground is not the back alleys and suburbs of the 21st Century but the harsh, violent world of the Old West.
So more The (Wo)Man With No Name than Buffy The Vampire Slayer then.
It's actually refreshing to see one of the lady vamp-hunters not spending page after page angsting about the chiselled bad-boy she can't stay away from and just getting on with killing the fanged wankers. Mrs Oglesby is a rotgut-drinking, gun-toting, poker-playing hardcase who would probably look like crap in a miniskirt but is more likely to nut a vampire than snog him.
A bit rough around the edges, then, but she does sort of grow on you and her comfortable relationship with bookish husband Ben makes a nice change from the aforementioned "I want to have sex with you...but I probably shouldn't" drama.
The story could maybe have done with tightening up here and there, I suppose, although Lee Collins manages to make his setting work, his characters interesting and give his tale a few nudges that I did not see coming.
Well worth a read and if you ever wondered what a cross between "The Unforgiven" and Anita Blake (*) would look like, here's your chance.
The writer's homepage is here: http://leecollinsfiction.wordpress.com/
(* - The ones before the series turned into porn, anyway)
`Mrs Oglesby is a rotgut-drinking, gun-toting, poker-playing hardcase who would probably look like crap in a miniskirt but is more likely to nut a vampire than snog him.'
ReplyDeleteI reckon you're in love BigD!
Cheers, ic
OK, I am going to have to google "snog"...that's a new one! Funny that this book is set in Colorado, which is like the healthiest state in the Union, full of people who spend every possible minute outdoors. I have to assume that vampires are something of a rarity in them there parts. But, the overall idea is quite intriguing, and seems like it would be successful.
ReplyDeleteThat is an interesting vignette but none the worse for its shortness. You have captured the essence.
ReplyDelete