#BlogTour Adonias Low by D.A. Watson

It's my turn on the BlogTour Adonias Low by D A Watson.

About the Author

D.A. Watson is the author of four horror novels and the fiction and poetry collection, Tales of the What the Fuck. 

His stories, verse and articles have appeared in several anthologies and collections and have won gongs and acclaim from Greenock to Dunedin, including nominations for a Pushcart Prize in the US and the UK People's Book Prize. An occasional poetry performer, he also appeared on the main stage of the Burnsfest Festival in 2018 as the warm up act for the one and only Chesney Hawkes, a personal milestone and career highlight. 

He lives with his family on the west coast of Scotland and is still telling stories. Follow @davewatsonbooks on Twitter, on Facebook  or visit dawatsonwriter.com

About the book

Murder. Robbery. Kidnapping. - Welcome to Napa Valley, California, 1891. - To lawmen and bad men alike, The Low Man is a ghost story. The most feared bounty hunter to ever walk the territories. Whispered to be a Native American shapeshifter, a renegade Pinkerton detective, or the Bible quoting son of a mad preacher. No one knows for sure. He’s a spectre outlaws scare each other with around campfires.

Adonias Low lives in the highlands of Napa Valley with his children, scratching a hard living as a farmer and occasional wagon guard. When a wealthy gin baron hires him to see a valuable shipment safely to San Francisco, the opportunity comes just in time to keep the family afloat.

But when the job turns into a massacre and his daughter is abducted by a deviant killer, Adonias is forced into a violent reckoning that will awaken a darkness he’s long tried to bury.

As the corpses mount up, a dying sheriff tries to make sense of the madness, scalp hunters saddle up and ride for blood, fame.

Review

It's as if someone took the energy and volatility of an urban crime setting, or a one-man Bronson Death Wish vibe, and pulled it back into a Western era, then wove folklore and horror into the fabric. You get the lawlessness, isolation, desperation of the era, and of course the brutality that went with it.

I liked the concept, perhaps because ultimately it comes down to the simple man protects family by any means possible, and that will attract a multitude of readers. I do think it can be done without gratuitous violence towards women and children, because it brings down the tone of the entire story, which is then detrimental to the cleverly interwoven subplot of man becomes legend. Legend becomes fused with folklore, fear and the elements we cannot begin to understand. And although it is part and parcel of said era I would also be cautious when to comes to the gratuitous use of descriptive language in regard to certain people referenced in the story.

Saying that, I can imagine this is definitely the right cup of tea for many readers. Justice, vengeance and guilt become intermingled, when punishing the bad puts you on an equal setting to those people. Where do you draw the line? Do you push before you're shoved, wait until it's too late and accept your fate or do you listen to the devil sitting firmly on your shoulder? 

Buy Adonias Low at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Next Chapter; pub date 17 Nov. 2021. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour Cuttin' Heads by D.A. Watson

Today it's a time for a bit of the gruesome and scary, the unexplained and unexpected, as we finish off the BlogTour for Cuttin' Heads by D.A. Watson. Don't forget to enter the giveaway at the end to win a signed copy of Cuttin' Heads!

About the Author
Prizewinning author D.A. Watson spent several years working in bars, restaurants and call centres before going back to university with the half-arsed plan of becoming a music teacher. Halfway through his degree at the University of Glasgow, he discovered he was actually better at writing, and unleashed his debut novel, In the Devil's Name, on an unsuspecting public in the summer of 2012. Plans of a career in education left firmly in the dust, he later gained his masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Stirling.

He has since published two more novels, The Wolves of Langabhat and Cuttin’ Heads, a handful of non-fiction pieces, several short stories including Durty Diana, which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016, and the Burns parody Tam O' Shatner, which in 2017 came runner up in the Dunedin Robert Burns Poetry Competition, and was a competition winner at the Falkirk Storytelling Festival.
He lives with his family in Western Scotland.

Follow @davewatsonbooks

Follow D.A. Watson on Amazon or Facebook

Buy Cuttin' Heads

About the book
Aldo Evans is a desperate man. Fired from his job and deeply in debt, he struggles to balance a broken family life with his passion for music. Luce Figura is a troubled woman. A rhythmic perfectionist, she is haunted by childhood trauma and scorned by her religiously devout mother. Ross McArthur is a wiseass. Orphaned as an infant and raised by the state, his interests include game shows, home-grown weed, occasional violence and the bass guitar.

They are Public Alibi. A rock n’ roll band going nowhere fast.

When the sharp-suited, smooth talking producer Gappa Bale offers them a once in a lifetime chance to make their dreams come true, they are caught up in a maelstrom of fame, obsession, music and murder. Soon, Aldo, Luce and Ross must ask themselves: is it really better to burn out than to fade away?

Review
'Tell me, my friend, have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?'

The band members of Public Alibi get the chance to do so, albeit unknowingly and perhaps not exactly completely of their own free will.

If you were given the chance to fulfil your wildest ambition, would you be willing to make a deal with an ancient evil being to get what you want? Fame, fortune, infamy and the adoration of the people? To do so you would have to forget about everything and everyone important to you though. With that in mind, would you still want to sign on the dotted line?

Aldo, Luce and Ross all have their weaknesses, which make them vulnerable to the proposition of a record deal presented to them by Gappa Bale. Bale draws them into his web and preys on their inner fears and worst nightmares. At the same time his charming snake tongue speaks to their most intimate desires and deepest emotions. He plays with them like a cat in a room full of confused mice.

Although this is based on the age-old tale of evil vs good and the temptations we tend to succumb to, Watson has infused it with his own brand of menacing wickedness and his in-depth knowledge of music, the world of musicians and instruments. The reader can almost taste the passion, the need and the desire that courses through the veins of dedicated musicians.

It is a compelling tale that makes you wonder how much of it is based on the fictional meanderings of the writer and how much is so close to reality that it bites, just like a sharp intake of breath in a smoky room. It may be horror, but it is also a close uncomfortable look at the lengths some of us will go to, to achieve what they want, even if it's at the expense of others.

Buy Cuttin' Heads at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.
Kindle edition

Enter the Giveaway below to win a signed copy of Cuttin' Heads

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