Hunger on the Chisholm Trail, by Mike Ennenbach, is entry number two in Death’s Head Press’ Splatter Western series. I’d like to tell you how many books are expected in this series, but it keeps gaining in popularity, and they keep expanding it. At the moment, I believe it’s planned to be ten or eleven.

The Magpie Coffin, by Wile E. Young, kicked the series off with fireworks. It set the bar very high, and while Hunger is an entertaining and fun read, it doesn’t quite hit the heights of book one. It does, however, take us in a different direction. Rather than following the notion that humans are the monsters, Hunger shows us in chapter one that monsters are the monsters. I’ve read some real good wendigo books, but I still believe it to be an underrepresented trope in horror. The genesis of how a wendigo becomes a wendigo is a fascinating study, to say the least. Ennenbach does a nice job here tying it to the strained, and frankly abysmal, relations between whites and Native Americans in the late 1800’s.

Karl Beck, who shows up to the party late, is arguably the protagonist of the story and is best described as a monster hunter. During the course of a truly riveting dinner party scene, Ennenbach establishes Beck as a character I want to read more about. As he talks about his exploits and shows his scars, I couldn’t help thinking ‘put the wendigo aside’, I want to read that story. While Beck holds the reader’s attention, a light needs to shine on some of the women in this book as well. The third act of this story doesn’t work quite so well without Jia-Li. She’s strong, she’s funny, and she more than holds her own. Tracey is another character who is easy to invest in and makes a good counterpart to Karl.

When I review, I tend to focus on my reading experience, realizing sometimes that might help people decide to pick up a book, and sometimes not so much. Disclaimer since I’m highlighting what’s next because it appeals to me. I’m a huge fan of shared universe material, be it in cinema or in books. The way the Dark Tower series joins together King’s other books could very well be the reason I’ve been a constant reader all these years. That said, even though I have yet to read Chris Miller’s Dust, book three in this series, there are references and allusions to the titular town here, as well as the main character featured. This started a whole new branch of excitement for me, anticipating the way these splatter westerns could potentially crossover with each other, or even subtly reference each other on the sly. In case the magnificent artwork by Justin T Coons wasn’t a big enough selling point to collect all the paperbacks, this possibility just might do it for me.

While I started this review out saying that Hunger doesn’t quite hold up to Magpie, it does do what it promised it would. Deliver a western with some serious splatter. The pages turned quickly and I had fun the whole time. As long as that continues happening in this series, I will continue picking up the next installment.