Judas Payne: A Weird Western

Judas Payne was the devil’s spawn, a product of rape, a half-white, half-Indian outcast who was loved only by his pretty half-sister, Evangeline. When the Reverend Payne finds the two naked in the barn, he takes out one of Judas’s eyes, and Judas chops off one of the Reverend’s arms and then runs for his life. He meets up with a number of colorful characters out there in the weird wild west, from a white slave-trading ex Confederate colonel to a gun-slinging assassin who quotes scripture as he slaughters his targets. Meanwhile, unknown to Judas, Evangeline Payne has been sold to a brothel and forced to engage in the most vile sexual acts with any man who pays for it.... In the vein of Joe R. Lansdale’s weird westerns, this dark novel is Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name meets Deadwood meets Cowboys and Aliens."Hemmingson writes in a somewhat formal style reminiscent of the TV show DEADWOOD, and it’s very effective given the Gothic overtones of this yarn. It’s a short, fast-moving novel, and spawn of Satan or not, Judas Payne winds up making a fine, likable hero. Everything is set up for sequels, and I hope we get them." --James Reasoner, ROUGH EDGES"This western goes where Joe Lansdale wishes he had the cajones to tiptoe through." --Louis Kahn Nin, author of Surfboards and Dormrooms