Cowboy blues

Bruce Holbert’s cowboy noir Lonesome Animals rings with evocative prose and morbidly fascinating sentences about a place where “courtship consisted of a man putting whiskey into his beloved until she either surrendered to or slept through his passions.” The story follows Russell Strawl, a former lawman with a dark and violent past, who sets out on a journey to catch a serial killer who butchers Native Americans, decorating the land with their bodies. While Strawl seeks justice, the reader pieces together his broken past, a strange prophet son and wife murdered by his own hand. Employing the poetry of violence, Holbert, who will read from and sign copies of Lonesome Animals Thursday, October 11 at 7 p.m. at Time Tested Books, crafts a frightening world full of cold beauty. 1114 21st Street, www.bruceholbertbooks.com.