Review: COLD AS HELL, by Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle
The first full novel that follows up on 2021’s DEAD ACRE brings us back to the undead outlaw James Crowley, working for heaven to wrangle baddies in the Wild West. And it delivers very well on the pitch from its predecessor.
Note: this review is based off the audiobook, narrated by Roger Clark, who has a perfect cowboy drawl and really brought the story to life.
The Story
As we learned in the prequel novella, James Crowley used to run with a group of bandits and baddies led by the heinous Ace Riker. He and Riker butted heads over how to treat a couple of captive women—Riker wanted to force himself on them, and Crowley intervened—ultimately resulting in Crowley’s death.
Now resurrected by a meddling angel, Crowley serves the White Throne in the ongoing effort to keep hellish creatures off of the earth. He goes from place to place as the angels prompt, solving mysteries and slaying supernatural villains all the way.
In this particular book, Crowley goes up against a powerful trio of bank robbers who are able to freeze things even in the desert. As he tries to get to the bottom of things, he meets old friends and new enemies, leading to revelations about his past and making big promises about his future. I really liked how the authors weren’t afraid to make “big moves” as opposed to settling comfortably into a formula for a dozen books.
Crowley works on (and solves) the central case, and it results in massive changes to his personal status quo.
The World
This story is anchored in our world and our history, even if the town names might be fictional. It’s a wild west story. The authors don’t mention dates with too much specificity, but some historical figures come into the tale, like Bram Stoker. The fact that Stoker meets a revenant gunslinger working for God without knowing it was somewhat amusing to this reader.
The Characters
The aforementioned Crowley is a man who grudgingly accepts the reality of his situation, because it beats the alternative (hell). His chief rival is Ace Riker, who he hasn’t seen in twenty years, since Ace shot him and left him for dead. And rounding out the principle trio is Rosa Massey, whose connection to Crowley goes back decades, but she doesn’t know the truth of his condition.
Because I listened to the audiobook, it’s hard to know how to spell the names of some of the supernatural characters—like the angel who’s basically Crowley’s handler, or the Native Americans who feature heavily in the second and third acts. But this is an interesting cast and the story rewards your attention.
The Politics
The only thing that made any impression on me was how much Crowley made a point about saying the Indians got screwed and everyone should be nice to them. It came off as a departure from his attitude toward anything else in the book and it made me wonder if the authors’ own opinions were coming through a little too strong.
Other than that, it’s a period piece, and you won’t find any presentisms in it.
Content warning
In my review of DEAD ACRE I compared James Crowley heavily to Harry Dresden, but the content in The Black Badge is a lot more…gruesome. Bruno and Castle aren’t afraid to drop F-bombs or use defensibly accurate western outlaw speech. There were times when it felt excessive and could have been toned down, so be advised.
Who is it for?
I’m hesitant to recommend it to fans of westerns, since they’re notorious sticklers for accuracy…but if there’s an overlap between readers who enjoy sci-fi and Louis L’Amor books, they’ll be the ones who like Black Badge.
But if you like urban fantasy, a lot of this will appeal to you as well.
Why read it?
“Familiar, but different.” Having read two volumes now, I feel confident in saying that Black Badge plays a lot of familiar notes for you if you like supernatural/paranormal stuff, or longstanding grudges between brutally hard men. It’s the setting—and the authors’ use of it in the story—that makes it stand out.
As a final note, I’ll emphasize that while COLD AS HELL sets up big things to come in the future, it doesn’t copy the slower pace of more protracted series, where it takes several years for big changes to happen in the protagonist’s life; plenty of bombs get dropped, and the biggest one of all comes in the epilogue, showing that Bruno and Castle aren’t messing around. They’re aiming big at the future of the series. I’m pretty excited to see where it goes.