All about the books we love

The Shotgun Arcana by R.S. Belcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know why I let so much time go between books but after meeting the author at the steampunk symposium I inhaled this book. If anything I enjoyed it even more than book one (that said DO read book one, this is not a series to read out of order). Sheriff Highfather and his deputies, Jim and Mutt (biracial and quite possibly the son of Coyote) have their work cut out for them. They have a serial killer in town who makes Jack the Ripper look tame.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Beck's fellow exiled angel, Raziel (Ray Zeal) is heading to town to claim an evil artifact and riding with Zeal are over thirty of the worst outlaws, lunatics, serial killers, and cannibals. No one in town is going to be the same and some even worse off knowing they welcomed Zeal because Beck is your basic robber baron with everyone under his greedy thumb. The only humanizing influence for Beck is a young woman new to town with a special relationship to him.

There are so many small sub plots in this. Literally every major character has one (from a steampunkish inventor, the racist/woman hating doctor, the gay mayor who has mystical Mormon artifacts at his command, the descendant of a pirate queen, a woman out to take over the brothel trade and more, a man finally giving up the reanimated head of his dead wife to marry the new love of his life and more. Even all 32 of the baddies get a short intro (and many of them are drawn from real life) Belcher is deft at weaving them all into the main plot so nothing feels unnecessary or detracting from the main action.

Trigger warnings: It's the 1800s so expect Mutt to face racism, the women face misogyny and there is some pretty graphic violence and harm to children.

Loved the book. I need to go find the next one.

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