Deadwood meets Cthulhu in this wild and profane Western romp featuring zombies, werewolves, evil spirits, and one pissed-off gun-slinging preacher.

The Wild West has never seen the likes of Reverend Jebediah Mercer, a hard man wielding a burning Bible in the battle between God and the Devil, in an endless struggle he’s not sure he cares who wins. Laced with fast-paced action, nonstop humor, and spine-tingling horror, Deadman’s Road is your ride to hell, in which a vengeful shaman curses the town by conjuring a seemingly unstoppable army of the undead; an ill-advised shortcut leads to a bees’ nest of terror; a man stands condemned, not for murdering his wife but for raising the Lovecraftian horror that killed her; a woman is attacked by werewolves and left for dead in a ghost town; and a mining camp faces off with a horde of cannibalistic fiends.

Goddamn.

While I’ve really only read an incredibly small amount of Joe R. Lansdale’s work (his bibliography is…wicked intense), I know I’m in for something truly special every time I open one of his books. Deadman’s Road was no exception…Western horror written as only Lansdale could write it? Fuck yes.

This is a collection of sorts. The book consists of one short novel, and four short stories. Our main character is Reverend Jebediah Mercer, although the only real preaching we ever see him do is with his gun. He’s a bit of a tortured-soul type, rough around the edges, frequently drunk & weary, but fundamentally a good dude. He’s a hell of a shot, and over the course of the book, he becomes rather knowledgeable about all manner of unpleasant entities…zombies, werewolves, ghosts, goblins & more…Mercer sees some shit.

The short novel, “Dead in the West”, is primarily a zombie story, and Mercer’s first real encounter with anything supernatural. He’s mysteriously drawn to the town of Mud Creek. This town has a very dark secret, and it isn’t going to stay buried. Soon enough, the dead begin to rise, looking for their revenge. You can almost sense Lansdale feeling out the character here, as Mercer’s personality is a little stiffer than in the subsequent stories.

These stories were written as long ago as 1984, and as recently as 2010. It makes me really anxious to know if we’ll ever see Reverend Jebediah Mercer again, because I think the writing gets stronger and stronger as the book progresses. And my god, by the final story, Lansdale has dialed in the humor of this character to the point where I was dying laughing. That final story, “The Dark Down There” is also UNBELIEVABLY-SHOCKINGLY-HILARIOUSLY violent. If you look at it from a character perspective, by that time, Mercer is 100% out of fucks to give, and you’ll answer his questions or you’ll catch a bullet.

I had so much fun reading this. The pacing is frenetic. There’s just ALL THE GODDAMN MONSTERS, and it is outrageously gory in parts! And for real, I believe Joe R. Lansdale is one of (if not *the*) greatest writers of dialogue. His characters just leap off the page. I’ve really been wanting to read more of his bonkers/horror/weird books, and I think Deadman’s Road was as good a place to start as any! Highly recommended!