Hawthorne: The Long Black Train - Heath Lowrance

One of the most entertaining things I read last year was THAT DAMNED COYOTE HILL, Heath Lowrance's first supernatural Western story featuring the mysterious scarred gunfighter known as Hawthorne. Now Hawthorne is back in THE LONG BLACK TRAIN, the second story in the series, which I hope has settled down for a long run in David Cranmer's Beat to a Pulp publishing empire.

Hawthorne is a bounty hunter – sort of – and this story finds him on the trail of a man who murdered his sister-in-law when she tried to shield his runaway wife. That trail leads Hawthorne to a train making a nighttime run from Denver to Santa Fe, but as Hawthorne soon discovers, something even worse than his quarry is on that train. Much worse.

THE LONG BLACK TRAIN is gruesome, occasionally funny in a bizarre way, packed with action, and very well-written. In the space of a year or so, Heath Lowrance has become one of my favorite authors. If you enjoy Westerns with a supernatural touch, you definitely need to check out the Hawthorne series. I'm already eager to read the next one.