A well-written western with lots of heart…and teeth.
I’d never read Hunter Shea before, but I’d heard about him plenty. In fact, we can all blame Jonathan Janz for my discovery of Shea, though it was completely indirect and unintentional. A little over a year ago, I discovered Janz’s writing, and when I looked up Flame Tree Press to discover more of his titles, I kept seeing Hunter Shea’s books popping up. His name came up more and more as I have become more immersed in the horror community on social media, and I finally decided Flame Tree and all these other folks raving about his work couldn’t be wrong.
And they weren’t! GHOST MINE is a terrific western and also a great siege/standoff story with ghosts and ghouls from beyond the veil. I really loved the characters, perhaps Teddah most of all. They were written with nuance and depth, genuine emotion and raw energy boiling out of them all. And they were VARIED! This is nice, as sometimes authors get caught up so much in one character, it seems to bleed onto all the others in the story. Not the case here. Each character is an individual with their own history and world view and strengths and weaknesses. The interplay between them all is also a masterclass in characterization. I can’t stress enough how well-drawn the characters are here, and I think that was the strongest part of the novel.
The story itself was interesting, and it takes its time to reveal all of what’s going on. This works to the readers’s advantage as we get to revel in the mystery of what’s happened and is still happening in Heckla. As the tensions rise and new truths are revealed, we’re carried away into what turns out to be a strong climax with a perfect wrap up after the denouement.
I’ll be checking out more of Shea’s work directly, but in the meantime, if you’ve been on the fence about GHOST MINE, don’t be. Just check it out. It’s a lot of fun. You’ll feel the tingle of excitement, the intoxication of mystery, the chill of terror, and you’ll manage to laugh out loud a few times as well.
Great fun, GREAT characters, and come on…who doesn’t like a good old western? I give it 4 out of 5 stampeding horses. Find it in print, digital, and audio here.
Chris Miller 