This is a story with a uniquely American flavor. It is Wild West, but not the stark, romantic West of cowboys riding into town and not the cleaned up cutesy version where the hero wears a white hat and sings ballads. This is a gritty, harsh world of people who actually populated the small towns of American West: miners, traders, shop keepers, smiths and railroad workers.

Against this background, a wicked, dark magic spreads through the land, carried by the rails. Strange creatures roam the continent. Some use the magic, some fear it, others fight it. Cedar Hunt is one the latter. He is a man cursed by a god into lycanthropy and although he can be bought, he isn't cheap to hire.

Aside: Cedar, what a cool name. I wish I could steal that. Cedar is also pretty hot. Also god-curse is an excellent mythological touch. There are some Native American legends... Okay, shutting up.

Anyway, three miners - who are also not without talents - hire Cedar to find a magic doom doohicky for them. In return, they imply that they know his deceased brother, who may not be dead after all.

And that's the basic plot of it. What makes this book isn't the worldbuilding - although it is very cool. It's the relationships between the characters. The book is full of angst, and struggle, and anger. For example, Cedar meets a widow, a woman who loved her husband so deeply, that she wished him to never leave her side. Her husband is murdered but even in death, he attempts to return to her. All of her love turns to hate for those who had robbed her of her love and Cedar ends up helping her as well. It is tragic, and it makes you angry. At the finish I wanted them to nuke the bastard responsible. I just wanted him to die.

The novel doesn't have a heavy romantic element, but there is a second book and my money is on the widow, btw. I have a signing with Devon, so I will pick her brains and find out.