Looking for the latest in weird west fiction? We’ve got you covered. Below is a running list of featured Weird West new book releases coming out in 2023 from traditional and small-press publishers. These Old West stories range from supernatural horror, sci-fi, epic adventure and much more. The list will be updated throughout the year, so be sure to check back for new book recommendations.
*Last updated November 2023.*
February 2023
Title: Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger
Author: KC Grifant
Publisher: Brigids Gate Press
Type: Supernatural adventure horror
Description:
In an Old West overrun by monsters, a stoic gunslinger must embark on a dangerous quest to save her friends and stop a supernatural war.
Sharpshooter Melinda West, 29, has encountered more than her share of supernatural creatures after a monster infection killed her mother. Now, Melinda and her charismatic partner, Lance, offer their exterminating services to desperate towns, fighting everything from giant flying scorpions to psychic bugs. But when they accidentally release a demon, they must track a dangerous outlaw across treacherous lands and battle a menagerie of creatures—all before an army of soul-devouring monsters descend on Earth.
Supernatural meets Bonnie and Clyde in a re-imagined Old West full of diverse characters, desolate landscapes, and fast-paced adventure.
Title: High Noon on Proxima B
Editor: David Boop
Publisher: Baen
Type: sci-fi, adventure and horror
Description:
Adventure! Danger! Revenge! And a mail-order robot gunslinger in a wedding dress? Only in the wildest parts of space could this happen. It’s time again to get in your ramshackle rocket ship and journey to the universe’s western territories with this follow-up to Gunfight on Europa Station.
Meet the employees of a space bordello as they’re drawn together to pull a con on a con. Or the crew filming a Western on a colony ship only to fight gravity and each other. Or a soldier on a backwater planet hiding from her past when it—and the military—finally tracks her down. Each voyage invokes the type of Western yarns you’ve loved before, but with a science fiction upgrade you’ll get to enjoy anew.
Taking you on this ride are another set of astounding space opera authors such as Walter Jon Williams (Hardwired), Susan R. Matthews (Under Jurisdiction), Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore (Star Trek), Brenda Cooper (Project Earth), Milton Davis (Changa’s Safari), Hank Swchaeble (Moonless Nocturne), Peter J. Wacks (Caller of Lightning) and more!
Ten tales of the West . . . not as it was, but as it might be!
March 2023
Title: Lone Women
Author: Victor LaValle
Publisher: One World
Type: supernatural western
Description: Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear.
The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women” taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.
Crafted by a modern master of magical suspense, Lone Women blends shimmering prose, an unforgettable cast of adventurers who find horror and sisterhood in a brutal landscape, and a portrait of early-twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen. And at its heart is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—or redeem it.
April 2023
Title: The Survival of Margaret Thomas
Author: Del Howison
Publisher: Pandi Press
Type: adventure horror
Description:
In this action packed horror novel set in the old west, Margaret “Peggy” Thomas’ peaceful life is turned upside down after the murder of the local sheriff, her husband, James. Peggy, accompanied by a group of misfit companions, will stop at nothing to face her husband’s killer, and time is running out. Del Howison has crafted a dark, nuanced tale about justice, found family, and the choices we make in the throes of desperation when faced with nothing to lose. The Survival of Margaret Thomas transcends genre into a tale of hope, heart, and revenge.
Margaret Thomas lives a quiet life with her husband James in the small town of Bleak Knob, Missouri. Until one afternoon James is gunned down on the sidewalk in front of her, and she’s left to care for the land and herself, alone. With more questions than answers, and years of grief and alcohol, a sudden telegram announcing the upcoming trial of one of James’ killers pushes Peggy into action. accompanied by groups of misfit companions, Peggy will stop at nothing to face her husband’s killer, and time is running out.
Powerful and wrought with adventure, The Survival of Margaret Thomas is the newest in a long line of great American road novels.
Title: Try Not To Die in the Wild West
Author:Mark Tulles and John Palisano
Publisher: Vincere Press
Type: Choose Your Own Adventure
Description: Welcome to the Wild West, a time of exploration, independence, and countless opportunities…
for death.
You’ve been to Placerita Town often to sell your father’s ironworks, but never have you experienced a day like this. Jumpin’ John and his gang of outlaws are tearing apart the town, and the Sheriff’s doing nothing to stop them.
You’ll have to steer clear of the gang and brave the dangers of the desert if you’re going to survive in this interactive novel. Watch your back, choose wisely, and be careful who you trust. It’s wits versus might as you try to stay alive in the Wild West!
MORE THAN TWO DOZEN WAYS TO DIE.
JUST ONE CORRECT PATH.
DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO SURVIVE?
If you grew up reading Goosebumps ® or Choose Your Own Adventure ® stories, you’ll love this western! Find out why fans say, “I had a great time with the different decisions, even though I died a lot!”
Title: The Massacre at Yellow Hill (Book 1 of 3)
Author: C.S. Humble
Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications
Type: supernatural horror
Description:
When George Miller is killed in the mines of Yellow Hill, his wife and children are left to try and piece their lives back together. Tabitha Miller, George’s widow, is thrown into deeper chaos when she discovers that George’s death had nothing to do with the cave’s collapse, but was caused by some terrible predator deep within the earth. His death covered up by the mine’s Proprietor-Jeremiah Hart.
In nearby Big Spring, freed slave-turned-occult bounty hunter Gilbert Ptolemy arrives with his adopted son in search of a murderous vampire. New revelations in Yellow Hill draw the duo toward the struggling Miller family, the strange mine, and the horrors lurking within.
The Miller and Ptolemy families are pitted against mundane and supernatural forces in this Weird West adventure. Family struggles, heart-stopping gunfights, and nightmare creatures from dark realms abound in this award-winning novel from C.S. Humble.
Title: For A Few Souls More
Author: Wil E. Young
Publisher: Death’s Head Press
Type: splatter western
Description: Six years have passed since Salem Covington, the Black Magpie, rode a vengeance trail against those who killed his mentor. Now another lies on her deathbed and she has a message for her former student: He will soon follow her into the next world. But for Salem, there is no opportunity to mourn. A chance encounter with a young outlaw, Amaya, reveals three truths: she is being hunted by strange riders that cannot be killed, they have stolen women, and they answer to a man named Granger Hyde. Left for dead once, Granger has returned to take vengeance for his suffering, and perform a ritual of murder. A ritual with which Salem is intimately familiar. A bloody game of cat and mouse begins as Granger’s riders pursue the pair across the west, led by a woman that awakens long-forgotten fear, and is intent on driving the Black Magpie to his fate and the grave she has prepared for him. FOR A FEW SOULS MORE is the sequel to the Splatterpunk Award-winning novel, THE MAGPIE COFFIN, the second part in a trilogy by Wile E. Young, author of SHADES OF THE BLACK STONE and DUST BOWL CHILDREN. It is an examination of bleak fatality, nihilistic violence, and the iron at the heart of men.
May 2023
Title: Hungers as Old as This Land
Author: Zachary Rosenberg
Publisher: Brigids Gate Press
Type: Supernatural horror
Description:
The settlement of Grey’s Bluffs is a prosperous town. An independent community dwelling in the shadows of the mountains known only as The Hungers.
Esther Foxman and Siobhan O’Clery have grown up in Grey’s Bluffs, thriving out on the western territories in the aftermath of the Civil War. Devoted to one another and their home, the two set out to complete a regular pact at the Hungers to ensure that Grey’s Bluffs continues to prosper.
Cyril Redstone is a man who knows death well. Becoming a mercenary after the Civil War, Cyril leads the marauding Blackhawks from one slaughter to the next. Hired to destroy Grey’s Bluffs, Cyril cares little for morality, nor that he owes its founder his life.
Esther and Siobhan are left to defend the only home they have ever known from the Blackhawks, their confrontation driving them deep into the mountains.
Where the darkest secrets of the Hungers await them.
Title: How the Skin Sheds
Author: Chad Lutzke
Publisher: Death’s Head Press
Type: Splatter Western
July 2023
Title: Along Harrowed Trails
Publisher: Timber Ghost Press
Editor: C.R. Langille
Description: The Old West was a time of lawlessness, violence, and danger. Threat of death could come in the form of bandits, outlaws, and even the very land itself. But what if there was something else? Something that lurked in the shadows waiting to strike when the stars were right?
In this anthology, over 30 authors and poets explore the weird and visceral side of the Wild West with stories of demons, ghosts, and creatures from myth and legend. From haunted towns to mysterious mountaintops, these tales will take you to the heart of darkness.
In the tradition of Stephen King, Cormac McCarthy, and Louis L’Amour, this collection of stories and poems brings the Old West to life in all its bloody, gory, glory. So saddle up and hold on tight, because you’re in for a wild ride.
Featuring stories and poems by: Keith Anthony Baird, Richard Beauchamp, Hank Belbin, Matt Bliss, Deborah Cardillo, Jeremiah Dylan Cook, Aristo Couvaras, Jennifer Crow, Ben Curl, Alycia Davidson, Robert DeLeskie, Rachel Horak Dempsey, David A. Elsensohn, Maxwell I. Gold, KC Grifant, Levi Hatch, Pedro Iniguez, Samantha Kelly, C. H. Lindsay, Linda Ann LoSchiavo, Winston Malone, Morgan Melhuish, LH Michael, Dermott O’Malley, Cygnus Perry, WR Platt, Daniel Powell, Craig E. Sawyer, Kathryn Tennison, Emily Ruth Verona, Adam Vine, Chris Wilder, and Ann Wuehler.
Title: Cruel Angels Past Sundown
Author: Hailey Piper
Publisher: Death’s Head Press
Type: Splatter Western
Description: New Mexico Territory, 1882: She comes to the Klein ranch at sunset, a strange naked pregnant woman dragging a cavalry saber. Annette Klein and her husband have built peace between their marriage and secret relations beyond, but their serenity dies in bloodshed tonight through a cannibalistic demon and a mad preacher. Annette barely escapes the bloodbath to the nearby town of Low’ s Bend, where she might find safety with a shotgun-toting barkeep, two no-nonsense boarding room ladies, and the gunslinging bounty hunter who’ s captured Annette’ s heart. But hell is at her heels. If she’ s going to survive until dawn, she’ll have to forget everything she knows about peace and mercy, and face a hollow malevolence more ancient and ruthless than she’ s ever imagined.
Title: The Legend of Charlie Fish
Author: Josh Rountree
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Type: Supernatural western
Description: As always, Floyd Betts rides into town alone. He arrives for his father’s funeral, but he is returning to Galveston, Texas, with two orphaned siblings he has rescued. Nellie, who is descended from a long line of witches, has visions from other people’s minds. Hank, her impulsive younger brother, just wants to break out his outsized revolver.
Along the way home, Floyd, Nellie, and Hank encounter a dubious traveling salesman, Professor Finn, and his henchman, Kentucky Jim. They are struggling to capture a fish-man in order to put him on cruel display. When Nellie taps into the peril of the gentle Charlie Fish, Floyd’s makeshift family expands to include the lost, two-legged amphibian.
With the circus charlatans in pursuit, ominous winds are picking up from an impending hurricane. Meanwhile, all Charlie Fish wants is to return to his home at sea.
September 2023
Title: Hot Iron and Cold Blood anthology
Editor: Patrick R. McDonough
Publisher: Death’s Head Press
Type: horror western
Description: Desperados and yellow-bellies be warned: These ain’ t your typical westerns … Herein find legendary masters of anomalous Western and Horror stories— along with a posse of budding word-slingers— who all bring you an electrifying and frightening collection of extraordinary tales set in the Old West and beyond…Within these pages, the improbable is made real: cowboys encounter a chimeric critter of the night; dinosaurs return as massive poltergeists; Chinese railroad workers are haunted by invisible frights; outlaws experience Cronenbergian body-horror; fallen-light stalks mother and daughter upon a wintry prairie; a headless horseman roams the badlands; otherworldly creatures hunt within our domain; screaming spectral birds nest within the damned; and gunslinging women with murderous skills annihilate foolish notions of a man’ s world. These are just a handful of the offerings in this body of macabre lore.So, mount your saddle-horse and join this gang of rogue authors for a ride down dark trails of terror and unsettling thoroughfares that lead deep into strange, nightmarish territory. Here you gallop through places where law has no dominion and Death constantly deals a grim hand— and where the iron is red-hot and the blood drips ice-cold.
Featuring stories by Joe R. Lansdale, Edward Lee, David J. Schow, Jill Girardi, R.J. Jackson, Vivian Kasley, Owl Goinback, Kenzie Jennings, Jeff Strand, Wile E. Young, and more. Edited by Patrick R. McDonough. With an Introduction by R.J. Joseph
Title: The Collected Tales of Evelyn Horn: Branches & Bone
Author: C.R. Langille
Publisher: Timber Ghost Press
Type: Cosmic horror western
Description: Pinkerton Evelyn Horn has seen her fair share of the weird and dark. But when she arrives in the Utah Territories to investigate the disappearance of fellow a Pinkerton and friend, she finds herself facing something even more sinister.
Strange occult rites, crazed cultists, and ancient prophecies all point to something dark and malevolent lurking in the shadows. Evelyn must use all her skills and experience to survive the horrors that await her in the mountains.
A gritty, action-packed, and bloody horror story, Branches and Bones is a must-read for fans of the genre.
Title: Red Rabbit
Author: Alex Grecian
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Type: supernatural horror western
Description: Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bona fide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward, Rabbit.
On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure – but no sense of purpose – and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. As their posse grows, so too does the danger.
Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that bounty, or die trying.
Written with the devilish cadence of Stephen Graham Jones and the pulse-pounding brutality of Nick Cutter, Red Rabbitis an epic adventure of luck and misfortune.
December 2023
Title: The Good, The Bad, & The Uncanny: Tales of a Very Weird West
Editor:Jonathan Maberry
Publisher: Outland Entertainment
Type: sci-fi/fantasy/horror western
Description: Gunslingers. Lawmen. Snake-oil Salesmen. Cowboys. Mad Scientists. And a few monsters. The Old West has never been wilder! THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UNCANNY presents sixteen original and never-before-published adventures by some of today’ s most visionary writers who have spun wildly offbeat tales of gunmen, lawmen, magic, and weird science. Saddle up with Josh Malerman, Scott Sigler, Keith DeCandido, Cullen Bunn, R.S. Belcher, Greg Cox, Jeffrey Mariotte, Laura Anne Gilman, Aaron Rosenberg, Maurice Broaddus, John G. Hartness, Carrie Harris, James A. Moore, Marguerite Reed, C. Edward Sellner, Carrie Harris, and Jennifer Brody! These tales twist the American West into a place of darkness, shadows, sudden death, terror in the night, bold heroism, devious magic, and shocking violence. Each story blazes a new trail through very strange territory – discovering weird science, ancient evil, mythic creatures, and lightning-fast action.
*Miss something? Shoot over a message to have a book or recommendation considered for inclusion. Please include the publisher, description and date of release. The book should be set in the Old West and have a speculative element or crossover with another genre to be considered (e.g., not a classic western).
Weird West Fiction 