Lee Collins

Cora Oglesby and her husband, Ben, are bounty hunters in the Old West. But they don't hunt criminals. Their prey are those things that go bump in the night except these creatures not only bump but bite, maim, and eviscerate. The Oglesbys have been hired by the sheriff of Leadville, Colorado to hunt down whatever is killing the local miners. They thought they knew every kind of monster there was but they were so, so wrong.

These days vampire stories seem to have become so common and so cliche, show more they're like one big steaming sparkly pile so I wasn't expecting much from this one. Fortunately, it not only exceeded my expectations (which admittedly were pretty low but that's not a comment on this book) but actually kept me up reading. The Dead of Winter is definitely a giant step up from the rest and much of this is due to the character of Cora. She is coarse, crass, down-and-dirty but it is the sense of some hidden tragedy in her past which makes her such a fascinating heroine.

The Dead of Winter is the debut novel of author Lee Collins and a more-than-decent one it is. I will definitely be looking to read the sequel and, trust me, given my normal disdain for all things vampire, this is high praise indeed. show less

I received this free Advanced Release Copy through NetGalley. The book is out November 1st.

The Dead of Winter bears the pitch line, "True Grit meets True Blood." That's quite apt. Cora and her husband hunt "spooks"--that is, the undead and other nasty critters that crawl out of hell. There aren't too many willing to take on that job in the late 19th-century pioneer west.

The book's pace and feel is like that of an urban fantasy, but against a very cold, very dark Colorado winter backdrop. show more The mixture works incredibly well. I read another ARC (Portlandtown by Rob DeBorde) earlier in the year that tried the same blend and pioneer setting, but felt very disjointed, with too many characters and almost too much crammed in; The Dead of Winter didn't suffer from that problem at all. It stays true to its western roots, with that paranormal touch.

As much as I love steampunk, it's good that it's not forced into a book. Sometimes a western should just be a western.

Cora is a tough-as-nails heroine. She's quick on the draw and damn good at her job, but at the same time relies heavily on her husband's wisdom and quiet, supportive presence. She also has a problem with alcohol. There is a major subplot involving her husband--I will take care not to spoil it. I caught hints early on and wondered where it was going. The climax relies heavily on this subplot, and handles it quite effectively. There's a lot of action involved, but the psychological repercussions are beautifully handled. The one thing that took away from this was a bit too much chest-thumping on the part of the villain--you know, the whole, 'I am evil and this is my dark plan for you' speech. But as that was probably the weakest element in the book, it's forgivable.

Well, I take that back--this does rely on a lot of western cliches. For example, the only women shown are Cora and prostitutes, and the word "whore" feels overused. Even if it draws on western cliches, it still feels unique because of the paranormal elements.

The Dead of Winter wasn't one of my very favorite reads of the year, but it's high up there. It's a thoroughly enjoyable book, and well worth seeking out if you love a paranormal western. Also, at the end I was thrilled to find this was a NaNoWriMo book--hooray for NaNo! show less

This book is a paranormal western. Cora and her husband Ben are monster hunters. They travel the frontier of the Old West hunting down monsters that plague the more isolated settlements – from hellhounds to vampires, they’re quick to respond with a silver bullet to put it down.

Which seems simple enough when they move into town. There’s an ornery marshal, but Cora’s dealt with those before even if they do strike more sparks than usual. And there’s a beastie that’s eating people, show more time to tackle it the old fashioned way, head on with a bullet to the brain.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t work and it takes a bit more digging to take down this rather more unusual monster with the attached worry that one day, maybe, they will tackle a monster they don’t truly know how to fight.

And this creature is just the beginning of their problems, because there’s something far older and far more dangerous lurking in the mines around the town. And far craftier than anything they’ve faced before – or anything that Cora thinks she’s faced. As they test their mettle and knowledge against the ancient, Cora must also confront memories of her past that she has sealed for 10 years.

I really liked the plot of this story, especially how the book was almost written in two halves. On the first we got to see Cora’s standard way of living and working. Her coming into town, tracking down the monsters and putting a bullet through their brain. And if that didn’t work, her back up plans, her sources of information, the resources she can call upon. By dedicating the first half of the book to a relatively mundane moment in Cora’s hunting career (albeit with a twist of it being an unusual monster) we get to see so much more of her character and background than any amount of exposition could show. Rather than launching into the Nosferatu storyline and then trying to fill in the past, this initial battle established everything we needed to know about Cora, the way she works and the way she interacts with the local authorities. It was an extended introduction and it really worked.

And I like the characters, especially Cora. She’s not perfect by any stretch – she’s rough round the edges, she’s road, she drinks too much, she’s hard as nails and as pleasant as sandpaper. She swaggers into town, she’s insulting, arrogant, and virtually dares people to take her on and challenge her. She insists people work her way and if they don’t, she’ll move on – it’s not her hide being eaten by vampires. She is the epitome of a character who will do things her way, live life her way, no matter how objectionable or difficult that way can be. I like her, I want to hear more of her story, I want to follow more of her adventures.

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I don't use star ratings, so please read my review!

(Description nicked from B&N.com.)

“Four years after the horrific events in Leadville, a young woman from England, Victoria Dawes, sets into motion a series of events that will lead Cora and herself out into the New Mexico desert in pursuit of Anaba, a Navajo witch bent on taking revenge for the atrocities committed against her people.”

This book is quite different in tone from its predecessor, and I think this works to its advantage. This show more time out our main character is Victoria, a proper British young lady who finds herself in the wilds of frontier America on a quest for help avenging her parents’ death. While Cora, the main character from the first novel, does play a major part in the story, she’s not front and center as much as Victoria is. Cora is an abrasive character, and a little of her goes a long way. Not being stuck in her head as the point of view character was, for me, a plus.

It’s also nice to see how these two extremely different personalities play off of each other. They’re at the opposite ends of the spectrum in how they think and behave, and it’s Victoria who bears the brunt of changing to adapt to circumstances. Given that she’s the one who is out of her element, this makes sense. It also allows some of Cora’s personality to come through, anchoring readers to how she was portrayed in the first book.

The plot of She Returns from War pulled together its supernatural elements much more smoothly. The New Mexico setting provides the perfect backdrop for the Native American skinchanger, and she’s written such that her association with a creature from Cora’s past is logical. The plot also relies more on action and backstory than on a plot twist, the way the first novel did. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the twist in Dead of Winter, but it’s not something an author can pull twice in a row without feeling gimmicky. Letting this story run straight through without any tricks was a wise choice. And this novel’s plot is strong enough that it doesn’t need to play with its readers. All the various threads are woven together quite well and tighten into a fully formed tapestry at the book’s climax.

The only problem that I had with this story is that it seemed to end rather abruptly. The professed aim of Victoria’s trip isn’t dealt with by the book’s end, because it was sidetracked into a quest that involves Cora more than Victoria. I’m hopeful that Collins will write another book to tie up those loose ends.

She Returns from War melds the stark and brutal beauty of the American West with some of its most tragic and shameful episodes and then adds in a dash of the fantastic. Definitely not your typical “vampires and weird things” novel, Collins’s Cora Oglesby stories should appeal to those who like their fiction to take chances and strike out in directions not usually seen.

This review originally appeared on Owlcat Mountain on May 29, 2013. show less