Book Review: In the Land of Dead Horses

In the Land of Dead Horses by Bruce McCandless III follows Texas Ranger, Jewel T. Lightfoot in the early 1900s. Charged with investigating the mysterious deaths of a farming family in a remote area, Lightfoot finds that the deaths are not simple murders, but something far more sinister.

The men who have been committing the murders – killing and draining the blood of their victims – aren’t just sadistic killers but actually doing these heinous acts to resurrect a Mayan god of darkness. The Mayan god was long ago weakened and entombed, but has now been found and brought back to wreak havoc and death.

Lightfoot enlists some help from other rangers and an aging silver miner Ernesto and his grandson, Antonio, to find the men and monster and end their reign of terror.

I enjoyed the story and found myself really interested to see what would happen and how it would all turn out.

My only critiques would be that this book, as with many books written by male authors, I didn’t care for how the female character was written or described. There is one prominent female character and although she is only in the book minimally, the way she was described (yes, you guessed it – her breasts were described) just seemed so unnecessary. I’m not opposed to steamy scenes (I’m sure you guys know I love them by some of the books I read), but there were no steamy scenes in this novel so the description of her breasts that were “spilling” like a “cornucopia” out of her corset just seemed unnecessary not to mention an eye-roll worthy description. The other critique is that I was a little confused with some side stories going on that I’m sure will play a role in the next book in the series, but it had to do with government officials in D.C. who seemed to have been keeping on eye from afar of the investigation, but had no real direct role? I’m not really sure.

Aside from those two things, which were minor, I did enjoy the mystery and supernatural aspects of the book!