Pitch:

DRESDEN FILES meets RED DEAD REDEMPTION

The town of Victory’s a frontier haven for mystical outcasts. Sheriff Val Rivers keeps the peace, but a railroad worker’s murder ignites a powder keg of violence between the superstitious laborers and ‘monstrous’ locals. To find the killer, Val must bargain with the goddess who screwed her over decades ago. If she can’t pay the goddess’ horrifying price, the corpse on the tracks won’t be lonely for long.

Excerpt:

Sheriff Val Rivers hated the smell of blood. The metallic tang stuck in the back of her throat like she’d swallowed a rusty nail. Gun to her head, she couldn’t name a single time anything good followed that sensation. She masked her dread with a solid poker face, despite the scent creeping towards them from the railroad tracks. Anya, her deputy, rode alongside her, already looking uneasy.

“You all right?” Val asked.

“Yeah, sorry.” Anya pulled the reins of her chestnut mare. “Full moon’s about a week off, and my nose is more sensitive than usual. Lucky me.”

Val gave a sympathetic grunt. “Tell me if it’s too much.”

Anya shook her head. “I’m fine.”

Train tracks cut through the red desert rock like a knife wound. The unfinished end of the line loomed fifty meters off, littered with construction equipment and materials. Two figures waited by a pile of timber: a man dressed in dirty overalls and a woman in a clean, practical suit, holding a blue handkerchief to her nose.

Both looked relieved when Val flashed her silver badge, a four-pointed star inside a plain circle.

“Sheriff Rivers. Sorry for the wait.”

“It’s quite alright.” The woman lowered her handkerchief. “Natalie Townsend. First Republic Railway Company. Territorial Manager for the Crescent Territory.”

“Pleasure.” Val shook her hand. “Which one of you found the body?”