‘The Magpie Coffin’ is a splatter western/horror novel written by Wile E. Young and published by Death’s Head Press. Death’s Head Press has released a handful of these splatter western novels now that are set in the Old West with cowboys, gunslingers, and renegades but make use of the splatterpunk subgenre of fiction as well. Splatterpunk usually provides descriptive and rather depraved sequences of gore broken down to the last detail making you really feel every slice of the blade or shot of the gun as they take place and Wile E. Young takes no exception to that in this novel. This book really utilizes all the genres it plays in with the western setting (covered wagons, horseback riding, small town saloons, gunfights, etc.) as well as it’s descriptive splatter gore sequences, and the horror element as well with our main character’s voodoo rituals and ghostly shaman guiding him on his path to vengeance. The book follows our main character Salem Covington, known around as ‘The Black Magpie’ for his reputation of claiming trinkets from all the victims that die at his hands, as he tracks down the cold-blooded killers who murdered his mentor (Shaman Dead Bear) and the rest of the Comanche tribe that he used to run with and learned all his voodoo rituals from.
Salem most certainly fits into the anti-hero like archetype as he’s not really concerned about being a good guy or a hero, he just wants to murder the men who took his mentor’s life, and he doesn’t think twice to kill anyone that stands in the way of that or how brutal and depraved he has to get to do it. He’s really just the “hero” of our story because that’s the character we follow along with on our journey through the novel, but he’s pretty badass none the less. There are times throughout the story where you’ll be thinking what a son of a bitch this guy is, but plenty of other times (one very specifically) where you’ll be cheering along happily as Salem slowly and brutally murders some very twisted, depraved individuals in joyous fashion. Our other lead in the story is Salem’s reluctant partner/captive, either works, Jake Howe. Jake was a former Union soldier who hated the Native Americans but had his head on straight overall and truly believed in justice (the complete opposite personality of Salem) and fit the stereotypical archetype of an old western hero more than Salem did. Seeing these two’s relationship develop from Jake reluctantly helping his enemy so he wouldn’t be killed, to Salem doing everything he could to keep Jake safe and alive since he made him a promise as such was neat and was the one sliver of humanity and care that we saw out of Salem throughout the novel outside of his care for his dead mentor, whom he brought along with him on his travels, in a coffin.
Like I have already kind of said, this book is quite gruesome at times and our main character is a cold blooded and heartless, killing machine, but he isn’t even the most depraved character we meet in this book so that’s saying something. The horror elements twisted into the story at random moments were good as well, it was like Salem could communicate with and walk in the in between space between life and death (thanks to the voodoo rituals) to communicate with and seek guidance from his mentor. I say voodoo but really it could be hoodoo or ancient Native American spiritual rituals or something else, but whatever it was it worked and was used as like a secret power of sorts for Salem throughout the story, even helping him knock off some more enemies a time or two. He also mentioned repeatedly in the story that his gun was like a special power, he couldn’t be killed by a bullet if he had this gun on his hip and he could hear it whisper to him, urging him on to the men he was hunting down and sometimes even urging him to commit murders to innocents because the gun in itself was just bloodthirsty and wanted to claim lives. The gun was both a blessing and a curse because you were bound to it as it was to you until you claimed a certain number of lives at its hands and then you were set free, that was a pretty neat and truly original idea I thought that perfectly blended the horror/supernatural elements of the story in with the old western setting. ‘The Magpie Coffin’, because he’s “The Black Magpie” and travels with the coffin of Dead Bear, get it? Clever huh? This book didn’t hold back in its descriptive sequences of violence and out of date and rather offensive terminology, but I personally think that helped the story feel like it was playing out in the times that we are supposed to be in (1875 to be exact) and set it apart as its own truly original tale. This book isn’t for the squeamish or easily offended, but it’s certainly not trying to be either, and I had a great time reading it. This story felt somewhat like a pulp novel of old, small set of core characters tracking down the “bad” guys and a rather quick story with a singular goal we’re moving towards, with maybe a few side quests along the way, but I think it worked perfectly in that setting. It was a rather short read and a pretty enjoyable one for me personally, so if you’re into westerns, splatterpunk, or horror, and you’re not easily offended or have an anxious mind or squeamish stomach then this would be right up your alley! Check it out! There’s multiple other spatter westerns that Death’s Head Press has released as well that I may get to checking out here soon now that I’ve read this one, but they’ll have to fall a bit to the wayside for the moment as I have multiple books on my ‘to-be-read’ now, but check them out as well if you read this one and enjoy it!
