Today, we have an excerpt from the next novel by Josh Rountree: The Unkillable Frank Lightning, “a Frankenstein-inspired tale unlike any other”.
The novel is due to be published in a couple of weeks by Tachyon Publications. To mark the occasion, the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share with our readers. Here’s the synopsis:
Catherine Coldbridge is a complicated woman: a doctor, an occultist, and briefly, a widow. In 1879, her husband, Private Frank Humble, was killed in a Sioux attack. Consumed by grief, Catherine used her formidable skills to resurrect her husband. But after the reanimation, Frank lost his soul, becoming a vicious undead monster. Unable to face her failure or its murderous consequences, Catherine fled to grieve her failure.
Twenty-five years later, Catherine has decided she must make things right. She travels back to Texas with a pair of hired killers ready to destroy Frank. But Frank is no longer a monster; he is once again the kind man she knew. He has remade himself as the Unkillable Frank Lightning, traveling with the Wild West Show, and even taking on a mysterious young ward.
Now Catherine must face a series of moral dilemmas that cannot be resolved without considerable bloodshed.
Civilian Reader 