Novelette
Number of words : 10500
Percent of complex words : 10.5
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 9.2
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 7.9
Flesch : 66.8
Flesch-Kincaid : 6.2
: Bulldozer - Laird Barron
CHARACTERS
Jonah Koenig : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A Pinkerton man out to catch a thieving murdering cannibal occultist.
Rueben Hicks : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Black magic killer and Koenig's quarry. Also known as Tom Mullen or Ezra Slade. Nickname Iron Man. Robbed P. T. Barnum and left with a scary tome. Says he is an Opener.
Violet : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A prostitute who entertains Koenig and he becomes fond of.
Sheriff Murtaugh : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Irishman, the law in Purdon.
P. T. Barnum : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Entrepreneur and employer.
Doc Campion : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Purdon's medical man.
Billy Cullins : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Purdon's undertaker.
Trosper : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A bartender, not a big fan of Koenig's.
Jake : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Bar muscle and gunman.
Octavia Plantagenet : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Madam at the Honeybee Ranch.
Taylor Hackett : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Bar-H ranch owner.
Norton Smythe : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Gold mining businessman.
Bob Tunny : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Smythe & Ruth Mining Company owner.
Harry Edwards : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Smythe & Ruth Mining Company owner.
Philmore Kavanaugh : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A journalist.
Dalton Beaumont : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Deputy and cousin of Sheriff Murtaugh.
John Brown : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
An alderman.
Michael Piers : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A French poet.
Professor Langston Butler : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
An anthropologist originally from England. Had an affair with Hicks.
Levi : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A deputy.
Tuttle : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
One of Barnum's lawyers.
Chung Han : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Chinese supply man. Also has a brother.
Copernicus : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Ancient astronomer.
Evelyn : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A Honeybee girl.
Glynna : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A Honeybee girl.
Reverend Fuller : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Purdon priest.
CONCEPTS
Belphegor : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A demon. Also Chemosh and Baal-Peeor.
Saint Vitus' dance : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Chorea, a movement disorder that makes you jerk around.
ORGANISATIONS
Pinkertons : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Employer of questionable ethicsh who uses private detective type agents.
Molly Maguires : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A Gang Koenig broke.
Workers Benevolent Assocation : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Union Koenig busted.
Ancient Order of Hibernia : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Irish Catholic fraternal order.
WEAPONS
Colt : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A type of revolver.
Winchester Model 1886 : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A type of rifle.
Jim Bowie : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A type of knife.
PLACES
Purdon : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A California mining town with wretched outskirts.
Riverfront Hotel : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Koenig's chosen lodgings in Purdon.
Gold Digger saloon : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Koenig gets some info here earlier in the case.
Cedar Grove : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Where Hicks departs from. The Sanitarium, in particular.
Lubbock : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Koenig finds a letter of Hicks' here.
Albuquerque : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Koenig finds a worse letter of Hicks' here.
Bakersfield : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Koenig finds dismemberment evidence.
Honeybee Ranch : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A whorehouse. Also called the Bumblebee ranch.
Bar-H Ranch : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Taylor Hackett's spread.
Forty-Mile Camp : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
Where Professor Butler lives.
Anderson Creek Canyon : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
On the way from Purdon to Forty-Mile Camp.
Barnum's House of Curiosities : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A freak show.
MEDIA
Dictionnaire Infernal : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A book on demons and devils by Collin de Plancy. Stolen by Hicks.
Pseudomonarchia Daemonum : Bulldozer - Laird Barron
A book, in Latin.
PLOT
A Pinkerton man is hired by P. T. Barnum to hunt down a crazed ex-employee who robbed him. One one the things taken was an old demonology text. The trail leads through an ever more disturbing chain of disturbing writing through dismemberment. Koenig is a tough bastard, union buster, gang breaker, etc. and is more than happy to be violent, as long as he gets someone guilty, even if not the right person. He also has a Harvard education, so is not just some dumb guy, which helps to explain his successes.
When he tracks him down to your good old frontier Western type town everything seems normal enough. Bars, gunmen, whores, sheriffs, avaricious businessmen, etc.
That is, things do get a little odd, but more so after meeting Professor Butler, one of Hicks' ex-lovers: ""Rueben suffers from a unique breed of mycosis—you've perhaps seen the tumors on his arms and legs, and especially along his spinal column? It's consuming him as a fungus consumes a tree. Perversely, it's this very parasitic influence that imbues him with numerous dreadful abilities. Evolution via slow digestion."
and
"I established communion with a primordial intelligence, a cyclopean plexus rooted below these hills and valleys. An unclassified mycoflora that might or might not be of terrestrial origin. There are rites to effect this dialogue. A variety of osmosis ancient as the sediment men first crawled from. Older! Most awful, I assure you."
Koenig makes the rather valid assumption that stopping Hicks from living much longer would be a really good idea. Even with his education, dealing with this level of abnormal horror may be beyond him, especially after his own affliction with the condition Hicks is suffering from.
4 out of 5
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