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About
Lauded Texan author Josh Rountree (The Legend of Charlie Fish) has created a devastating Frankenstein-inspired tale set in the Wild West. With equal parts Cormac McCarthy, Mary Shelley, and Stephen Graham Jones, Rountree creates a work of historical horror that deftly navigates the terrible aftermath of love and death.
"Weird and heartfelt and hard to pull your eyes away from."
-Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Catherine Coldbridge is a complicated woman: A doctor, an occultist, and, briefly, a widow.
In 1879, Private Frank Humble, Catherine's husband, was killed in a Sioux attack. Consumed by grief, she used her formidable skills to resurrect him. But Frank lost his soul after the reanimation, and disappeared after a killing spree. Unable to face her failure and its murderous consequences, Catherine fled to grieve.
Twenty-five years later, Catherine has decided she must make things right. She travels back to Texas with a pair of hired killers ready to destroy Frank. But Frank has remade himself as the Unkillable Frank Lightning, traveling with the Wild West Show.
Reaching for a last chance at redemption, Frank and Catherine are at an impasse. As time runs out, their final choices may result in considerable bloodshed. Josh Rountree is a novelist and short story writer who writes across multiple genres, and focuses mostly on horror and dark fantasy. His novel, The Legend of Charlie Fish, released by Tachyon Publications to wide acclaim in 2023, selected for the Locus Recommended Reading List and named one of Los Angeles Public Library's best books of the year. More than seventy of Rountree's short stories have been published in a variety of venues, including The Deadlands, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Bourbon Penn, Realms of Fantasy, PseudoPod, Weird Horror, and The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror. Several collections of his short fiction have been published, most recently, Death Aesthetic. Rountree lives in the greater Austin, Texas, metropolitan area with his lovely wife of many years and a pair of half-feral dogs who command his obedience.
• This historical horror retelling of Frankenstein in the Wild West is a tale of deep loss, undead monsters, and yet ultimately, of the bonds of an improbable found family
• Josh Rountree, who was called "inventive and electric" by Publishers Weekly, is a skilled writer of Western dark-fantasy and horror that is strongly inflected with Texan regional history
• National marketing plan to include cover reveal, launch event, local and national author appearances, social media and blog tour, radio, podcasts, features, and interviews "Weird and heartfelt and hard to pull your eyes away from."
-Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
"Josh Rountree mixes Charles Portis's True Grit and Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove with elements of James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein for a relentless train-ride of a novel."
-Derek Austin Johnson, author of The Faith
"With The Unkillable Frank Lightning, Rountree solidifies himself as not only one of the best writers working today, but makes the case for being the best Western writer of our present century."
-C. S. Humble, author of the That Light Sublime trilogy
"Once you start reading The Unkillable Frank Lightning, you just won't be able to stop. Catherine Coldbridge and her companions and her Old West are endlessly fascinating."
-Tim Powers, author of Declare and The Stress of Her Regard
"This western reimagining of Shelley's classic sticks true to the heart of the story, while giving us something entirely new and breathlessly exciting. Everything Rountree writes is a treat. I hated to put it down."
-Chris Panatier, author of The Redemption of Morgan Bright
"The well-trod Frankenstein mythos gets an enjoyable twist in this weird western from Rountree (The Legend of Charlie Fish). In 1879, frontier medicine woman
"Weird and heartfelt and hard to pull your eyes away from."
-Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Catherine Coldbridge is a complicated woman: A doctor, an occultist, and, briefly, a widow.
In 1879, Private Frank Humble, Catherine's husband, was killed in a Sioux attack. Consumed by grief, she used her formidable skills to resurrect him. But Frank lost his soul after the reanimation, and disappeared after a killing spree. Unable to face her failure and its murderous consequences, Catherine fled to grieve.
Twenty-five years later, Catherine has decided she must make things right. She travels back to Texas with a pair of hired killers ready to destroy Frank. But Frank has remade himself as the Unkillable Frank Lightning, traveling with the Wild West Show.
Reaching for a last chance at redemption, Frank and Catherine are at an impasse. As time runs out, their final choices may result in considerable bloodshed. Josh Rountree is a novelist and short story writer who writes across multiple genres, and focuses mostly on horror and dark fantasy. His novel, The Legend of Charlie Fish, released by Tachyon Publications to wide acclaim in 2023, selected for the Locus Recommended Reading List and named one of Los Angeles Public Library's best books of the year. More than seventy of Rountree's short stories have been published in a variety of venues, including The Deadlands, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Bourbon Penn, Realms of Fantasy, PseudoPod, Weird Horror, and The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror. Several collections of his short fiction have been published, most recently, Death Aesthetic. Rountree lives in the greater Austin, Texas, metropolitan area with his lovely wife of many years and a pair of half-feral dogs who command his obedience.
• This historical horror retelling of Frankenstein in the Wild West is a tale of deep loss, undead monsters, and yet ultimately, of the bonds of an improbable found family
• Josh Rountree, who was called "inventive and electric" by Publishers Weekly, is a skilled writer of Western dark-fantasy and horror that is strongly inflected with Texan regional history
• National marketing plan to include cover reveal, launch event, local and national author appearances, social media and blog tour, radio, podcasts, features, and interviews "Weird and heartfelt and hard to pull your eyes away from."
-Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
"Josh Rountree mixes Charles Portis's True Grit and Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove with elements of James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein for a relentless train-ride of a novel."
-Derek Austin Johnson, author of The Faith
"With The Unkillable Frank Lightning, Rountree solidifies himself as not only one of the best writers working today, but makes the case for being the best Western writer of our present century."
-C. S. Humble, author of the That Light Sublime trilogy
"Once you start reading The Unkillable Frank Lightning, you just won't be able to stop. Catherine Coldbridge and her companions and her Old West are endlessly fascinating."
-Tim Powers, author of Declare and The Stress of Her Regard
"This western reimagining of Shelley's classic sticks true to the heart of the story, while giving us something entirely new and breathlessly exciting. Everything Rountree writes is a treat. I hated to put it down."
-Chris Panatier, author of The Redemption of Morgan Bright
"The well-trod Frankenstein mythos gets an enjoyable twist in this weird western from Rountree (The Legend of Charlie Fish). In 1879, frontier medicine woman