"Bounty"

Review - "Bounty" by Hank Edwards

Great story of vampires in the Old West

Very Highly Recommended

Josh Stanton is not having a good week.  Besides never fitting into the town of Belkin's Pass since his mother disappeared when he was a child, he's had the very upsetting experience of seeing dead people...come back to life.  The latest one is the wonderful woman who took him in and raised him when no one else would.  And now he's had to put her back to rest.

Which, when discovered, puts him on the wrong side of the law.  That means against his best friend, Deputy Dexter Wells.  When Dex is put in the position of having to find Josh and perhaps arrest him for murder, it might just the only way to save him from a lynch mob.

Add into this whole mess the fact that something, or someone, is making the girls working the towns' house of ill repute sick.  A strange man named Balthazar is draining blood from some of the whores, and now, some of them are developing the taste for it themselves.  One of the girls, Glory, is able to resist and tries to save the other girls.

When Dex finally catches up to Josh, he learns some of what happened, but it only adds to the questions, not solve the problems.  But what does happen is the spilling over of the attraction the two men have fought for years into passion. 

Will Dex be able to save Josh, and prove he isn't guilty of the crimes he's accused of?  And will the town be safe from the night time evil attacking it?  How are the two problems linked?

Hank Edwards has written a fantastically original, rousing story of vampires, romance and the Old West.  It's funny, tender, hot and exciting, and a fantastic read.

Josh is a wonderful character, abandoned in his youth and, but for the grace of God, he would have been thrown away.  The fact he grew into a caring, kind man makes his story all the more sweet.  And his relationship with Dex was wonderfully imagined.  Friends all their lives, both fighting an attraction that is forbidden but strong.

The overreaching story lines are fascinating.  Vampires attacking a town in the Old West.  Josh' uncanny ability to raise the dead from their graves.  Balthazar and what he wants. 

All compelling.  Original.  Exciting and damn it, it left me wanting so much more.

This is the beginning of a series, and I for one cannot wait for the next installment.

Great job, Mr. Edwards.  Keep them coming!

Tom