AUSTIN, TX / AGILITYPR.NEWS / September 14, 2021 / Author Bruce McCandless’s prequel to Sour Lake proves that the dead have no love for the living
Author Bruce McCandless III returns to fiction with his latest release, In the Land of Dead Horses, a spine-tingling tale of Texas history and supernatural terror. A prequel to McCandless’s 2011 novel Sour Lake, In the Land of Dead Horses (Greenleaf Book Group Press) reintroduces readers to Texas Ranger Jewel Lightfoot and his macabre world of double-barreled demon hunting.
In the Land of Dead Horses chronicles Lightfoot’s pursuit of a resurrected horror from another age—a manifestation of the Mayan god of darkness, unearthed from its subterranean crypt on the outskirts of the Chihuahuan Desert and set loose on an unsuspecting world. Set against the backdrop of Central and West Texas in the year 1908, McCandless’s work weaves a rich tapestry of culture, mythology, and blood-curdling mayhem.
Kirkus Reviews describes In the Land of Dead Horses as "a paranormal whodunit that offers a gripping battle between good and evil."
Lightfoot, a hard-drinking Texas Ranger, is aided by an aging silver miner named Ernesto Zavala and his grandson Antonio, a rangy firebrand who longs to free his people from the rule of Porfirio Diaz’s corrupt Mexican government. Together these unlikely heroes face off against a sinister German academic, a trio of religious fanatics who want to restore the glory of the Mayan empire, and a horror from the depths of history that grows stronger with each setting sun.
“Readers of Sour Lake really responded to Jewel Lightfoot and his take-no-prisoners approach to the murders he investigated,” McCandless says. “After spending some time in the state archives, I’m now able to document his career a little more fully with Dead Horses. I like to think of it as the X-Files version of Lonesome Dove.”
Visit www.BruceMcCandless.com to learn more about Bruce McCandless III’s writing and pick up your copy of In the Land of Dead Horses. But be careful: Not everyone who rides out of Austin in the fall of 1908 is going to make it back alive.
About the Author:
Bruce McCandless III is the author of the Amazon bestseller Wonders All Around: The Incredible True Story of Astronaut Bruce McCandless II and the First Free Flight in Space, a memoir released in July of 2021 and tabbed as one of Men’s Journal’s Best Books of 2021. Set against the backdrop of NASA and the Space Race, Wonders All Around is first and foremost a relationship story about a family caught up in a father's ambitions, disappointments, and struggle for professional redemption.
Dubbed Austin’s Poet Laureate in 2000 by the Austin American-Statesman, Bruce has published poems, stories, and essays in The Seattle Review, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Pleiades, Bayou, and other journals. He is also the author of the novels Sour Lake and The Black Book of Cyrenaica, as well as a modern fairy tale for pre-teens called Beatrice and the Basilisk.
With his daughter Carson, he wrote Carson Clare's Trail Guide to Avoiding Death (And Other Unpleasant Consequences), a book of poems for middle-schoolers that Indie Reader gave a perfect 5.0 score and that Kirkus Reviews calls an "amusing and friendly handbook" with "delightful verse and surprisingly useful tips."
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Greenleaf Book Group
Greenleaf Book Group is an independent publisher and distributor located in Austin, Texas, dedicated to empowering authors. Greenleaf’s hybrid publishing model is uniquely positioned to offer the benefits of both traditional publishing and self-publishing. To learn more about Greenleaf, visit www.greenleafbookgroup.com.
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