Evil Dead icon and scream king Bruce Campbell has put down the Necronomicon to pen his new novel Reconcile, his fifth self-published title under his own imprint, Eastmoor Media.
Set in Oregon in 1866, Reconcile drops into the volatile aftermath of the Civil War, where westward settlers, the U.S. Military, and Native American tribes are on a collision course. Against the rugged landscape Campbell has called home for decades, he tells a story where heroes and villains aren't easily sorted and where the cost of westward expansion falls on everyone in its path.
Per an official press release, Reconcile draws on Campbell's lifelong love of the western, passed down by his mother, Joanne, who devoured every Zane Grey novel ever written. In the book's dedication, Campbell writes:
“She simply loved the Western genre in any form, and she passed that love along to me. Joanne is the reason I moved west in the first place – the access to nature, the interesting people. My mother was tired of my dad and the Midwest, and she fled the sleepy Detroit suburbs to live a more authentic, rugged life out west. I’m glad she did.”
The three-time New York Times bestselling author, who serves as executive producer on Evil Dead Burn, the latest in the Deadite horror franchise from Infested director Sébastien Vaniček, adds:
“Westerns, by nature, are riddled with clichés. The steely-eyed, unshaven hero protecting innocent pioneers from brutal, unforgiving savages […] With Reconcile, I tried to sidestep many of the cliché elements we've read or seen in Westerns for a generation. Reality isn't tidy or reliable. In the heat of battle, the ‘good guys' and ‘bad guys' aren't so easily defined.”
Although Reconcile is Campbell's first written venture into the oater genre, let's not forget his starring role in the weird western series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., in which he played the titular lawyer-turned-bounty hunter for all 27 episodes of the sadly-cancelled show.
Reconcile is available now on Amazon in paperback ($6.99) and eBook ($4.99).
