Blurb:

The Hinterlands are a lawless place of broken dreams and broken people.

Roth is a bodyguard trying to leave his dark past behind, but history has a way of turning back up. Cynthia is a bandit who's trying to make a future by wading through blood. They travel separately, trying to live by their own codes. All while a man in a red cloak tracks their blood-soaked footprints.

Review:

I spend a lot of time winding up Zack and telling him if he doesn’t read certain books I love then he is dead to me. I drive a hard bargain, what can I say. Anyway, it seemed time that I sat down and read his book to support him too. 

As always when I know the author, I went into this absolutely worried what I would do if I hated it. I like Zack! We’re kinda friends! We review for SFFI together. It’d be so awkward if I hated it. And once again, I am very pleased to say that this was not the case. I really enjoyed For a Few Days More. Even if I did tease Zack mercilessly for the many similes. So many similes. Like his editors for the second book are even coming for him. Probably because he’s southern and they have a lot of weird sayings.

The book has all the vibes of a Western but in a harsh winter landscape. So like, saloons but with actual doors cause it’s cold out. Because it has this outlaw, guns and Western vibes, it’s no surprise that there is a whole heap of violence. Like I cannot stress this enough, there is so much violence. Do not go into this book if you can’t cope with a spiked whip decapitating various people.

We start by being introduced to a man in a red cloak, a Justice Hunter who is arguably more interested in the ‘hunter’ aspect, interrupting some fireside stories…being shared by some bandits. Now being a bandit (which is not called banditing I learnt, that is apparently when you run a race without registering) is wrong but I don’t know if suddenly murdering four people really gives our man in a red cloak a platform to be superior. But we soon learn this man is an absolute machine and unmatched in his skill. Remember this man. He’s the devil when you say ‘Speak of the devil.’ 

Despite being the first we meet, the Justice Hunter in a red cloak is probably the third of our key characters. The first being Roth, a man trying to be better. I loved this because there is a scene in a bar where Zack keeps making reference to Roth trying to be better. Working on being better. Failing at being better. And it is FIERCE! It’s also weirdly enough, quite funny at points. Following this fierce scene, we meet the rest of the cast for Roth’s storyline. Now I don’t know about anyone else that read this or who will read it but mentally I cast Levi as John Goodman and Teak sounded like Foghorn Leghorn. I informed Zack of my casting choices and he was mad at how they fit. But mental voices aside, I loved these two side characters and the rest in the group that Roth was hired alongside to protect a woman and her daughter across the dangerous Hinterlands. I loved Roth and the daughter as well. That was…I’m not sure I can say wholesome but it was touching. 

The second key character is part of the reason the Hinterlands are dangerous and she’s called Cynthia. She is just ruthless. She is also clever, calculating and driven for more than just being the grown up bandit child of a brothel worker. She has dreams of being a leader and damn if she doesn’t learn everything she can about being a great one. Arguably, there is still some room for improvement. I’d say most good leaders don’t cut anyone’s tendons but I’m sure history would prove me wrong. She’s part of a wider gang run by Lank. I do not have nice things to say about Lank. But I will say he was clever in his thinking about throwing bounty hunters off their scent by sending Cynthia and co. onto debauchery elsewhere. Well…he thinks it was clever. The group with Cynthia grew on me. Mostly. One didn’t but that kind of resolved itself. But the humour and the vulnerability between everyone else in the group was excellent.

So how does a man in a red cloak, a bodyguard that’s trying to be a better man and an outlaw that is looking to become a leader culminate into one coherent storyline? This sounds like the start of a really bad joke, not least because the bodyguard gets picked up in a bar. Like I said before, great scene. It’s not a bad joke. I pinky promise. All I can say on this note is: It comes together. You keep thinking it’ll happen and then ‘no wait, now it’ll happen.’ ‘Ok it has to happen now!’ and then you’re wrong. But when it does it’s so good. It’s worth the wait. 

If you like your books with a Western showdown it’s-all-kicking off vibe but set in a frozen winterland, a probably-not-healthy amount of violence, a trio of captivating characters and just as intriguing side characters, and all this in a little over 200 pages then there is no question this book is for you.  And if you’re like me, you will be super mad at Zack about certain things as well. He’s on Twitter and BlueSky so you can yell at him about it all on there