The Rise of Devils

Glen Rio is an unholy town full of the most ungodly souls. Every four years, the undead rise to take the lives of the weak-minded and innocent, but the ten devils that reside here refuse to go down without a fight. Who has the guts to survive and who won't make it past tomorrow in this merciless battle of wits and tenaciousness?

The Rise of Devils is not your typical wild-west story. Gunslingers with hearts of gold and fiendish devils speak the language of lead, but there is much more lurking beneath the surface. Avoiding the bites from the undead and the bullets from these dark souls will be no easy feat. From a slave survivor and a scientist with his bodyguard to a rogue hunter and a train conductor down on his luck to several more, all these characters find themselves in sticky situations that will soon collide, testing their ability to depend on one another. Each character's story reveals their truly diabolical souls, but their cruel relentlessness may be the only thing that keeps them alive.

A science-fiction and western tale, The Rise of Devils is full of whizzing bullets, dastard lies, and snarling undead. Each sinful devil must decide who is trustworthy and who is expendable. Despite the cruelties they commit that blur the lines of humanity, they know that their reprehensible actions will determine their ultimate fate, no matter the cost.

After listening to "A Place to Call Home (Reprise)" by Big Wreck, J.M. Topp was influenced by the song and imagined his nefarious characters' lives, thinking about what their home would look like. He created this fictional world and plot after playing the video game Hunt: Showdown, inspiring his incorporation of sci-fi tropes with a classic western backdrop.

J.M. Topp is an avid reader who began writing seriously in 2014. He posts short stories on Reedsy.com and his own blog frequently at www.jmtopp.com. A missionary kid, Jon is very familiar with writing on the go. Music is the primary inspiration for his work. His other novels include Knights without Kings and The Twin Princes.