A host of charming characters and gruesome grotesques people the path from one end to the other and the scenes and asides they populate give Unbury Carol a particularly wild and woolly feel. While the present day struggles and slow revelation of their entwined past pulls the plot along, the real joy of the novel comes from the strange little towns and townspeople that serve as outposts along both the Trail and the tale itself. Of course, Unbury Carol wouldn’t be a Western worth its boots if there wasn’t a cast of colorful outlaws after Moxie and it wouldn’t be weird if there wasn’t a tinge of horror surrounding Carol.

While Moxie is pursued along the legend-haunted Trail by his own bloody past and a deranged triggerman with tin legs, Carol wrestles against supernatural forces and the paralytic state that she calls Howltown to bring herself back to the land of the living. When Carol Evers falls into one of her recurrent death-like comas and a dastardly plot to entomb her alive is set into motion, retired outlaw James Moxie – Carol’s former flame – sets out from his home in Miskatoon at the far end of the Trail and heads towards Carol’s waiting grave in Harrows. A loping Trail-duster of a tale, Unbury Carol has an enjoyable ride to offer readers looking for something weird in their Westerns.Īs befits a novel about traveling the Trail, in Unbury Carol the journey is the real destination. Josh Malerman’s Unbury Carol is a Western tinged with elements of the supernatural, the Gothic, and more than a hint of fairy tale, and which charts new ground for the author.

Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman