This isn't just a novel by an Arizona author, it's a novel set in Arizona, too; albeit not the state we both live in today. It's 1882, so it's still the Arizona Territory and Lt. Jonathon Harris accompanies a pair of Pinkertons into Cañon Diablo, north of Flagstaff, with payroll for the men working on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad. Harris was coming anyway, because he's taking over the town, tasked with ensuring that track is laid and a bridge is built. He's up against it from moment one, but he's a stubborn man who will persevere to get the job done.

One thing I liked here is that he doesn't lose track of that job even when faced with a particularly dangerous challenge, a mysterious creature that's picking off workers in Cañon Diablo. He does a fair job at doing what must be done to tackle that threat, but he keeps the work going too, which a lot of lead characters wouldn't do, choosing instead to ride off heroically to hunt the beast. It's the burden of command that keeps him in town, sending others out to die instead, not cowardice. He's a true leader and, quite frankly, this novel would have suffered without one.

Cañon Diablo is a fantastic location for western horror. It's a patchwork town that's sprung out of the desert to cater to the need at hand. The only street is Hell Street, which isn't much of a street, and the saloon doesn't even have a name. The workers are often the dregs of other, much larger, towns, like Flagstaff, so perhaps not the most calm, pleasant or reliable men. However, there are a lot of reasons to end up somewhere like this and we meet a good variety of men, some of whom prove crucial in hunting down this creature.

Another thing I liked is that we don't find out what it is quickly. In fact, I don't think we really find out what it is at all, but we do gradually learn enough to hazard educated guesses. When we first encounter it, in the company of a couple of Spanish brothers, Hugo and Francisco de Soto, it's set up with sound. The first hint is a whine. Then a howl. A growl. A rustling. Hugo is taken and eaten, we expect, but his brother gets away and we'll bump into him again later in the novel. For now, he serves as a potential link to the other characters that he hasn't met yet.

McCord is patient too. We spend more than fifty pages on 4th January, so he can build to what's to come carefully, and fifty more on the next day, but then he jumps three more to the 8th, doubling up the 9th and 10th. Patience combined with a ramping-up of pace is a good approach and it works well here, as does the combination of a sprawling ensemble cast of characters with a few to focus on closely. The heart of the novel is the relationship between Lt. Harris and Josiah Ogden, a quiet man in the western tradition who only talks rarely and to few people; but does what must be done at all times.

Given that I've praised a whole slew of things here, I should throw out a negative, which wasn't as obvious to start with but gradually became unmissable. This is a self-published novel and I would bet that it was primarily proofed through the application of a spellchecking tool. That leads to an annoyingly common situation whereby every word in the book is a real word but it often isn't the right one, because spellcheck doesn't understand context.

Therefore, we get "chord" for "cord", "fair" for "fare" and "reigns" for "reins", the latter more than once. More frustrating still, we're given "regimen" for "regiment", "send" for "end" and a whole slew of "Gile's" for "Giles" over a two-page spread. Spellcheck's a good thing, for all of you self-publishers out there, but find a way to catch what it doesn't. I only know of two methods that work: either read everything aloud to someone else so a different part of your brain notices the discrepancies or, if that doesn't work for you, throw your manuscript at another reliable human being and pay them to do the job.

That's important in any self-published book, but it's especially important in ones that are strong enough to work beyond a local audience. If your story sucks anyway, nobody is going to care much about your proofing, but if you have a good story with good characters and you have the skills to build a novel around them, you don't want bad proofing to counter it. And, just in case you hadn't noticed, this is one of those good stories with good characters that deserves to reach people. It's original, too, and taps into a growing trend for western horror.

Next time I bump into Jason at a convention, I'm going to ask him how he pictures the creature in 'Wounded'. I know what I think it is and the entire book will continue to work even if I'm wrong. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what it is, but I still want to know what the author considers it to be. One thing it isn't is a xenomorph but it shares a lot of the same characteristics. Arguably the best scene in the book is the one where it picks apart the hunting party sent after it. It's quite a brutal scene but it flows wonderfully. The creature is fast and intelligent and it's dominant just like a xenomorph, albeit without any sexual element. There's little of that here, with only a single prominent female character who doesn't sleep with anyone.

I'd also like to know which character speaks to him most. There are three in particular that I'd see as potential reader favourite, depending on how they tick. For instance, I connected with Josiah a lot more than Harris, but both are excellent characters, agreeably different and both providing a needed element to the story. I could also see Moon being a favourite for some people too. He's a sharpshooter and one of those is certainly needed, but he's not your typical sharpshooter. I liked him a lot, too.

What surprises me most is that I met Jason McCord at a science fiction/fantasy convention where we talked horror, but his published work seems more tailored to westerns. This is clearly a horror western, with both parts of that prominent, but 'Johnny Ringo: Unknown Destiny' looks like it's a straight western. So I'll have other questions to throw at him when I see him next. What's next? ~~ Hal C F Astell