Witch Bones by J. Cortex - Book Review

Witch Bones takes place in the town of Emmert, a small pilgrim village on the outskirts of the old west. After Talbert Schmidt’s son, Johnathon, vanishes in the night, he sets out to try and find the boy.

But Johnathon was only the first. More children begin to go missing. Aided by the town’s creator and local sheriff (a drunk man named Rackem) Talbert begins to uncover there’s more going on in Emmert than missing children.

The people are going insane. A great evil has washed over their town and time is quickly running out. Talbert and Rackem must find the missing children before whatever madness has befallen their town shrouds them forever in darkness.

A unique take on a classic witch story, Witch Bones isn’t so much about a rogue witch as it is about an innocent and God-fearing man’s search for his son. Talbert is not really a sympathetic character, but he’s fun to watch.

The real star of the show is Rackem, the hopelessly drunk sheriff who knows more about what’s happening than he lets on. The writing is short and exact, painting a clear picture of the small pilgrim town.

Cortex does a fabulous job weaving his little mystery, going from person to person in town trying to find which of them stole young Johnathon Schmidt. Each villager is nuttier than the last, and everything explodes in a sixty-page finale at the end.

The only problem I have is that the book could have been longer. It’s not bad, it just ends too quickly. You want the mystery to last so you can savor every last drop of Cortex’s brilliant storytelling. I give it a solid 10/10.

Unique and impressive. Cool characters. Scary scenes. Enough violence to feel satisfied. And somehow there’s a serious humor element that makes the book even more worthwhile.