This is my third book by Josh Malerman, and already he’s become a can’t-miss author. Unbury Carol is very unique and original. You can lump it in with the horror sub(sub?)genre of weird western, but it still manages to stand on its’ own two legs.

Malerman does an excellent job of taking a concept that I thought might make for a good short story and making it work as an engrossing 362 page novel. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the world built in this story. It has a lot of similarities to the old west, but contains a sense of isolation on the trail that makes the reader understand that this is not part of our world. One nice touch here is the way the suits in a deck of cards are different. A small difference, but it managed to set the stage.

Smoke is a fantastic villain and spends a lot of time doing the literary equivalent of chewing the scenery. I couldn’t help but picture him as Daniel Day Lewis harking back to There Will Be Blood. He is menacing and cruel, and is unquestionably a large part of why this story works on the scale it does.

The one issue I had was with the chapter set up towards the end. Malerman has described the chapters in this book as vignettes. Each one works as a complete scene and gives us glimpses of what is happening with certain characters or in certain locations. When the action comes to a head, Malerman opts for an extended chapter containing only a paragraph or two at a time before it jumps to somewhere else. This was clearly done to build tension, but the way the book moved for 95% of its run time worked so well, it was a shame to leave it.

All in all, a minor issue and I would recommend this to anyone looking for their next Malerman. If you’re looking to start this author, I believe Bird Box is the best point to jump in, but Unbury Carol gives us a great story with characters we enjoy spending time with, a villain whose next POV chapter we can’t wait to get to, and a setting in the Trail, that holds it all together.