BOOK REVIEW: "The Devils That Have Come To Stay" by Pamela DiFrancesco

A tale that turns the American western on its head.
California, late 1848. A nameless saloonkeeper has been alone for months while his wife, Joanna, is in Coloma caring for her ailing mother. Joanna’s letters, which tell of her mother’s nervous health crisis and the destruction of the surrounding land, have become darker and stranger. Meanwhile, the saloonkeeper witnesses several unexplainable events—voices speaking in strange languages in places where he sees only familiar faces, the mysterious death of a creekful of fish, a Stranger with a mouthful of gold teeth, and a dying Native American man who trails white feathers everywhere he goes.
The fields of Sutter’s Fort, near where Joanna is staying, haunt the saloonkeeper’s dreams, and soon he decides he must leave the sanctuary of his saloon and travel to her. Caught up in a journey north, the saloonkeeper witnesses the sometimes horrifying, senselessly violent shifting Gold Rush landscape. Amidst the chaos, he finds his only refuge in thoughts of Joanna. But when his troubled past emerges in glimpses he struggles to repress, the nameless traveler is left with a decision that will change not only his life but the lives of everyone around him.

Devils, when you read the title, immediately makes you think of paranormal novels, right? Wrong. This story, a horror-laced desperate story of a man haunted by nightmares, is a Western...but not your typical John Wayne type of Western.
I don't know a lot about the Gold Rush, so if there are any mistakes in geography or timeline, I can't tell you. What I can tell you is that, below the horror, is a love story of a man who is desperate to see his wife. It might not be prevalent in the middle of all that suspense, but this is a love story, deep down where it counts.
It is suspenseful, and you can tell the author did her research on mining in late 19th century California. It's the amount of care that was put into creating this story that makes it worth reading. Our nameless hero is three-dimensional and relatable, a great lead.
Will everyone like this? No. Should everyone give it a chance anyway? Definitely!

4/5--worth a read!

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