Dust Devils

Written by Jonathan Janz

Narrated by Paul Birchard

When traveling actors recruited his wife for a plum role, Cody Wilson had no idea they would murder her. Twelve-year-old Willet Black was just as devastated the night the fiends slaughtered everyone he loved. Now Cody and Willet are bent on revenge, but neither of them suspects what they’re really up against.

For the actors are vampires. Their thirst for human blood is insatiable. Even if word of their atrocities were to spread, it would take an army to oppose them. But it is 1885 in the wilds of New Mexico, and there is no help for Cody and Willet. The two must battle the vampires—alone—or die trying. 

FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Flame Tree Publishing
• Release date: Jun 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9781787582392

Jonathan Janz

Jonathan Janz is the author of more that fifteen novels and numerous shorter works. Since debuting in 2012, Jonathan’s work has been lauded by Booklist, Publishers Weekly, The Library Journal, and many others. He lives in West Lafayette, Indiana. Jonathan Janz grew up between a dark forest and a graveyard, which explains everything. Brian Keene named his debut novel The Sorrows “the best horror novel of 2012.”

Reviews for Dust Devils

[Wayne Fenlon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jonathan Janz acknowledges Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy and Elmore Leonard for his love of westerns, but let's just say that this story definitely leans more into the early horror styles of Stephen King and Richard Laymon. So, if you're looking to fill that void, I'd say definitely give this one a whirl.

I don't know why, but for some reason, I'm picturing spinning a gun around my finger at the moment.
Is that because I'm still thinking about this story? Probably. Ha.

Anyway, I feel like Dust Devils has been on my TBR pile for ages, so when I subscribed to Scribd, and noticed, Flametree Press having a fair amount of audiobooks on there, I thought, right, let's do this. Besides, I hadn't read Jonathan' Janz's work in a while, either, so it felt like the right time to sort that out.

In just a couple of days, this was all done and dusted. Yes, pun intended.

I listened to it on my commute to work, and a little in between, whenever I got the chance.
I thought the narration was spot on. Obviously it comes down to the writing, but it had that certain casualness to it that draws you in. The storyline and characters were really strong.
Now, I'm not saying it's perfect. Maybe some of the brutality scenes could have been played down a little. At times they felt a bit relentless. But in honesty, I'm only nitpicking here, because it didn't detract it from being a quality read...or listen, you know what I mean, because not once was I bored. Not once.

Giving Dust Devils any less than five stars would be an absolute injustice. It's one of those stories I'd love to see on the big screen.

So, if it's on your TBR pile, go fix that.
If it's not, you should fix that too.
It's definitely worth sinking your teeth into, that's for sure.

[Daniel Jackson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nice pacing and great story telling as usual. I find the stray from terribly happy endings refreshing. The small notches of sexuality in the books are not entirely detrimental to writing. Just so happens to be uses as tool to bring the reader deeper into the story. Tastefully shocking. Well done

[angelajmaher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a nicely done blend of western and vampire novel, not just a western with some vampires, or a vampire story with merely a historical setting.Non-stop action with no clear resolution for the majority of the book, this is a sustained ride, drenched in blood.It did lose its grip with me at some point, though. Perhaps I got used to the constant action, but the second half wasn't as gripping for me.Many thanks to Flame Tree Press for the ARC. This review is my voluntary, honest opinion.