The Demon of Devil’s Cavern by Brennan LaFaro is another gritty splatter western tale of magic, dust, and bloodshed set in Buzzard’s Edge.

Did you love Noose? If so, I’d be willing to bet that you’re more than ready to see what Rory and Alice get up to next!

Let’s dive in!

Content Warnings:
Per usual with DarkLit Press books, this has a content warning notice at the start for graphic violence and gore, and then directs readers to the back of the book for more information. One more that I would add from the start is the death of a child.

My Thoughts on The Demon of Devil’s Cavern by Brennan LaFaro –
One day when a knock arrives at their door, Rory and Alice are quick to pull their guns and prepare for the worst. Surprised to see the new sheriff of Buzzard’s Edge at their doorstep, they cautiously welcome her in. Things seem to be going okay as she tells them quite the tall tale. But of course, danger is lurking right around the corner. Rory and Alice are shocked when the first bullet finds its home in the sheriff’s skull, and just like that, they jump into action!

The next day, Rory and Alice go into town to report what happened but when the sheriff waltzes into town again, very much alive, the two are suddenly the bad guys again. Forced to flee town for a cabin in the woods, Rory and Alice hole up and try to figure out what to do next.

With the help of a couple of people in town, as well as a more ethereal somebody, the crew makes a game plan for what to do next to not just get Rory and Alice out of hot water, but to save the town. But will they succeed?

MY GOSH. The action and violence here is absolutely brutal. Talk about wanting to read a book while peeking through your fingers! There are a few scenes here that take that to an extreme.

The mob mentality made me so uneasy and seeing just how much control just a couple of people had over the whole town was terrifying. I loved getting more information about Alice, but man… I was already prepared to go to war for her. Learning more about what she lived through had my blood boiling!

This action-packed tale was a blast from start to finish! Just prepare yourselves for the darkness.

My Favorite Passages from The Demon of Devil’s Cavern –
Billy’s grin fell to the floor so fast it just about made a noise.

Deep breath in and I let go of the arrow and watched it miss the trunk so badly the breeze it created didn’t even rustle the leaves.
“Ah, perfect. I was aiming for the grass thirty feet yonder. Fuckin’ bullseye.”

“How’d you find us?” I asked.
Billy looked at his boots like somebody might’ve scribbled the right answer across the toes.

She swung the butt of the gun and a sharp pain opened up on the side of my head. The Saloon at the End of the World twisted itself in circles and turned black at the edges while my knees quit trying to keep me upright.

The streets stayed quiet, and the dead kept to the shadows. More than once, I thought I saw a pair of eyes watching me pass, so I kept my focus on the packed dirt before me. Like if I didn’t let on that I saw them, they couldn’t demand anything of me. Alice noticed; I could tell. Not a minute went by where she wasn’t swinging her head around like a weathervane on a windy day.

Bang.
The sweet sound sailed through the still air and the groaning footsteps gave way to a two-hundred-pound body slapping to the floor like a slab of meat hitting the chopping block. An unwelcome and unexpected noise in the Dennis Schoolhouse that the butcher down the street no doubt knew like sweet music.

Alice’s chest hitched, and a tear fell down the side of her face, curving around the cut on her cheek as if afraid to touch it.

My Final Thoughts on The Demon of Devil’s Cavern –
Horror and splatter western fans, you need to check out Noose and The Demon of Devil’s Cavern ASAP! These books are so atmospheric, brutal in both action and grief, and so much fun.

A wild west nightmare ride. Packed with adventure, comedic dialogue, and more death than you can imagine this book was a tour de force of western horror.

Follow along with Rory and Alice in buzzards edge as they get introduced to the new sheriff in town. That is until the sheriff takes one between the eyes on Rory’s front step. Forced to hide from a town set on vengeance Rory and Alice need to figure out what’s really going on in the town.

This was my first introduction to Brennan LaFaroand I’m very excited to dig into more of the Rory Dagget stories. I’ve never been a fan of westerns until now.

I love a good horror western and this one has the setting, the characters, and the supernatural to keep the narrative engaging without ever becoming stale.

I loved the main protagonist and his girl sidekick. Alice doesn't talk, she only communicates with sign language and she's quite deadly with weapons. After they meet the new sheriff in town things start going to hell pretty quickly and the story keeps it's foot on the gas the entire time.

They find themselves against all odds. There's a town full of people who want to kill them and then there are the dead...or perhaps undead. Twists and turns abound and the author really knows how to keep the reader on their toes.

The supernatural aspects blend nicely with the human elements. This book is full of gritty, dirty, immoral bad guys and the writing style takes you right into that wild west setting.

This one is a banger and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an Advanced Readers Copy of this book in exchange for a review.

The Demon of Devil’s Cavern is a horror story which follows the main character Rory Daggett and his daughter Alice. This story is a sequel to Noose.

The first thing that drew me in was the cover. When I found out this was a horror story, I was even more excited to start reading. I do love the horror genre and would happily read any book in this genre. Upon reading the book, I instantly loved it. While the first chapter didn’t have much descriptions, the dialogue and interactions between the characters did very well to fill that up and it made me want to keep reading. Each character was easy to distinguish and tell apart with their accents, dialogue and actions. Every dialogue prompt was unique to the characters present because it was illustrated in a way that felt native to the characters’ backgrounds and accents, making them truly unique and distinctive.

I’m going to keep this review short and say this was a five out of five for me. It was perfect in my opinion.