In a tiny Texas town, a team of investigators tries to solve a string of murders that may be linked to a Wild West gunslinger's brutal death.
“Brett Riley’s COMANCHE is the best western-horror-thriller-ghost story-PI novel ever written." —Tod Goldberg, author of Gangsterland
A chilling blend of Western horror, supernatural suspense, and detective fiction, in which a team of New Orleans investigators hunts a killer who may be the vengeful ghost of an outlaw gunned down more than a century earlier.
In 1887, near the small Texas town of Comanche, a posse brings the murderous career of the Piney Woods Kid to a violent end in a hail of bullets. But death isn't enough for the bloodthirsty vigilantes. They drag the outlaw's body to the dead house behind the train depot and hack his corpse to pieces. The townspeople rejoice. Justice has been served, and a bloody chapter in Comanche's history appears to be closed.
More than a century later, in 2016, a brutal double murder at the same train depot leaves local police baffled. Witnesses insist the killer was dressed like an Old West gunslinger. As fear spreads through the town, so do whispers that the Piney Woods Kid has returned from the grave to exact revenge on the descendants of those who killed him.
When a team of investigators arrives from New Orleans, they encounter a community reluctant to reveal its secrets. Haunted by their own troubled pasts and increasingly isolated from the townspeople, the investigators follow a trail of evidence that leads deeper into Comanche's violent history. But as they close in on the truth, they discover that the killer may already have them in his sights.
"A clever, imaginative blend of literary fiction, historical fiction, horror, dark humor, and detective procedural."- Si Dunn, Lone Star Literary Life
"Debut novelist Riley tells a quite deliciously twisted tale. The novel is a lot of fun, with a very entertaining story and a great cast of characters."- David Pitt, Booklist
"Brett Riley's gothic ghost western, Comanche, will delight readers of both westerns and horror, (his) prose crackles, and at times reminds of Stephen King or even Zane Grey. Riley employs a quick pace, with a strong emphasis on the lead protagonist's character development, private eye Turner, who spends the novel struggling with early sobriety." - Stephen Scott Whitaker, The Broadkill Review
"COMANCHE is the best western-horror-thriller-ghost story-PI novel ever written."-Tod Goldberg, author of Gangsterland and Gangster Nation
"A small Texas town, a puffed-up mayor, a couple of down and out cops, an alluring psychic, and a murdering phantom: what could go possibly go wrong? "-Laura McBride, author of We Are Called to Rise and In the Midnight Room.
"A classic Western for the here and now, delivering redemption through sacrifice, recovery through bravery and heart."-Douglas Unger, author of Leaving the Land and Voices from Silence.
"An atmospheric southern wonderland of guns, grit, bullets, blood and rip-roaring mystery. Riley's cast of characters are all a little good, a little bad, and a little ugly-a perfect mirror for us all. Saddle up. Hold on tight. And expect no quarter in Comanche, Texas."-BJ Hollars, author of Midwestern Strange.
