Dead Scalp

by Jasper Bark

Legend has it, when you’re down on your luck.
When the law is on your tail and there’s nowhere left to run.
There’s one last place to hide…
Dead Scalp.

You won’t find Dead Scalp on any map. It’s not at the end of any trail. And your only way in is hard cash and dark magic. But if you’re willing to risk everything you might just make it. And if you make it, you might just live forever!

Outlaw James Briggs has nothing left to lose. Through a desperate gamble, he bluffs his way into Dead Scalp and onto the payroll of Big Bill Baldwin the boss of the whole violent burg. But something sinister stalks the bloody streets, something in search of retribution. A terror that defies belief and crushes what little faith James has left in humanity.

There are crimes too terrible to countenance on Dead Scalp’s conscience and fates that make death seem a blessing.

Part of the Bark Bites Horror series, Dead Scalp is the weirdest western you’re ever going to read. A horrifying horse opera with shudders in the saddle, gore in the gutters and gunplay on every street corner!

***

Dead Scalp is the seventh book in the Bark Bites Horror series. A stand-alone story that you can start right away!

Bark Bites Horror is a spine-tingling series of stand-alone books that take the horror genre to a whole new level. Get ready for a Goosebumps for grown-ups and a sexed-up Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark! This is your favorite new obsession. These are the terror tales you’ve been waiting your whole life to read.

This is Horror 2.0, re-gened, re-tooled and recreated for a fearless new audience! Think you've seen everything in horror? Think again. Bark Bites takes you places you've never been and shows you sights few mortal eyes would dare behold.

Don’t be the only weird kid on your block to miss out!

Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Where Stories Come Alive!

93 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 29, 2025

About the author

Jasper Bark finds writing author biographies and talking about himself in the third person faintly embarrassing. Telling you that he’s an award winning author of four cult novels including the highly acclaimed ‘Way of the Barefoot Zombie’, just sounds like boasting. Then he has to mention that he’s written 12 children’s books and hundreds of comics and graphic novels and he wants to just curl up. He cringes when he has to reveal that his work has been translated into nine different languages and is used in schools throughout the UK to help improve literacy, or that he was awarded the This Is Horror Award for his last anthology ‘Dead Air’. Maybe he’s too British, or maybe he just needs a good enema, but he’s glad this bio is now over.

Reviews

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heehee, there's some serious wtfuckery going on here!

I'm personally classifying this wild novella as a weird, horror-western, creature-feature and It. Was. A. BLAST!

I hate to mention anything at all that might spoil this fun story for you, but I'm pretty sure I can guarantee this: You've never read another story with a creature like this. That being said, this is full of often gross and disgusting banter, extraordinarily terrible people and imaginative kills. Very, very imaginative kills.

I took a few days to read this, but that's only because the end of the month is my busiest time and when I wasn't working, I was sleeping. It usually would have taken only an afternoon and maybe not even that. If you're in the mood for a crazy-ass creature feature like no other, this is the novella for you!

*ARC from publisher

**This is part of the Bark Bites Horror series which can be read together or alone. Available from Crystal Lake Publishing.

[Peter Topside · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun. Definitely designed for fans of westerns, but I’m not sure it will grab casual horror nuts. I enjoyed the banter between the characters, despite having some difficulty keeping track of who was who. But the good ol’ fashioned insults and one upsmanship had me laughing and smiling throughout. The horror elements were unique and satisfying, complimenting the overarching plot. I believe that I’ve only read one other Jasper Bark book years ago, but this was a nice reintroduction.

[Milt Theo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, there's Weird Western horror, and then there's this! A Westen horror story about HAIR! Yeah, you read it right. So many WTF moments, I lost count midway. And I can't resist the pun: things do get hairy in this novellette - so much so that I had to read twice a couple of paragraphs to be sure that I understood correctly (and didn't simply imagine) that awful, awful scene of hair-raising terror (yeah, that's another pun, sorry not sorry) just twenty pages into the story! A creepy scene involving a freshly dead body, completely shaved, yet bloated and swollen from... its own bad decisions, so to speak. What follows after is totally disgusting. And this is just one of the many clusterf*ck situations in this unpredictable book: the large cast, made up mostly of gritty outlaw gang members, led by a repulsive, evil and power-hungry man, get themselves increasingly more and more entangled in incredibly messy situations, ultimately facing a life-and-death struggle, when the whole town they're hiding in steps onto someone's hair. Geez, another pun, though this one was meant literally!

OK, no puns: this is honestly one sick puppy of a book! It has gore, sexual abuse, fistfights, rituals, shootings, torture, gift-wrapped in a story about a town where outlaws can hide from the law, as long as they comply with the most bizarre rules you've ever met in a Western.

If you enjoy variety, originality, and irreverent mash ups of genres done with lots of cheek, then you cannot miss this! Highly recommended!

[Dale Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet, but it has a good, unique story with several imaginative deaths. It's also well written. Really enjoyed.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prepare for a hairy hair-raising journey into Dead Scalp, a town where only one thing can grow and conventional law doesn’t apply.

The synopsis describes this as Weird Western Horror and it delivers exactly what it says on the tin. It’s totally unique, Bark-ing (sorry!) and filled with the most creative gore entrenched scenes imaginable. Bart’s comeuppance made my stomach churn and punch the air simultaneously.

[Claire-Louise Armstrong-Brealey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was bitten by the Bark Bug a long time ago. There is no cure.

This is an excellent tale, although I could do with some of the swamp curatives for my hair, I am not sure the town of Dead Scalp is the place for me.

Ingrowing hair is painful and brings carbuncles to your skin... meet Dead Scalp's version. It brings more than carbuncles.

Splatterpunk at its finest and no less than what I would expect from 'Uncle Jasp'

Absolutely Marvellous

[Jim X Dodge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dead Scalp exists outside our world but has just about everyone of our problems. Murder, vice, corrupt government (of a sort). Through a mystic ritual anyone can open the door to Dead Scalp and for the right price they can enter and leave their problems (mostly an appointment with the hangman's noose) behind. This is a place with very few rules, the most important being: never cut your hair. Dead Scalp is violent, a bit mysterious, twisted, and twisty. I really love this weird western and, if you like gory horror, you will too. -Jim X Dodge, author of The Bite and Erogenous Jones: Private Dicktective

[DA · Rating 5 out of 5]

What the...

If ever there was a book that made me want to use gifs as my review, this would be it. Stunned. Shocked. Revolted. Pretty much sums up my reaction to what the menace was in this book. I have NEVER read anything like this before, and quite honestly I don't think I want to.
It's gruesome, some of the scenes had me breaking out in goosebumps. Yikes!
At the core, this is an amazing splatter western that incorporates Navajo folklore. Highly recommend for lovers of splatterpunk.

[sugarnsass_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered this perusing the KU library and was drawn to the cover. I went in blind and this one was totally unexpected! What started out like an intrusive tangential hair in my eye quickly became an ingrown hair on the most sensitive parts of the anatomy. Painful, cringey, creative, and one hell of a hair-raising Western Horror tale!

[Margaret Hamnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was short but extremely enjoyable. The gore was great and the plot was certainly original. The hair stuff though made me want to barf! Well deserved revenge and easily hate-able characters. A fun hairy western!

[Catriona Mowat · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Wild West, it is every man for himself. For outlaws, every turn could be their last. But what if there was a way to live forever?
Maybe there is, for the rare few that can find their way to Dead Scalp.

This tale is short, creepy, witty, and whimsical. Everything that I expected from Jasper Bark, but elevated. Quirky characters with a surprising amount of heart, and a truly unique storyline that will pluck at your heart strings. This story merges history, horror, and a study in futility and greed. And what a combo that is!
This novella is well-rounded (with a perfect ending in my opinion), thoroughly thought through, and with perfect pacing to make you almost float through the story…as if cushioned on a wave of hair, perhaps.

My first story from Jasper Bark, and absolutely not my last, I can’t wait to read more from him

[Horror Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this extreme western themed novella, a portal to another world is sought after by outlaws and killers. But this land, known as Dead Scalp is more dangerous than hanging from a noose.

That's what James finds out when he enlists the native American who can open this portal. James is a wanted man and is willing to pay the price to get in. Because the law can't touch people here. However, once you enter you can never go back again.

But this nether town is run by a ruthless man who has his own twisted brand of justice. The only thing that grows there is hair and cutting your hair or shaving your beard has horrific consequences. When a man is caught not paying Bill his dues, a ritual is performed and let's just say it's absolutely gory and bloody, and it concerns hair...but man it gets devilishly demented.

As this living hair starts multiplying and killing people in the most insane and terrifying ways possible, James might just regret his decision to enter. Trust me, this novella will stir your guts and make you cringe. It's a blood drenched viscious read with things you've never read before.

I'll leave these horrific surprises for you to find but be prepared because it's going to get nasty. I highly recommend it.

I received an ARC of this book through the publisher. This review is voluntary and is my own personal opinion.

[Ann Keeran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dead Scalp brings a whole new meaning to "let your hair down". Creepy and horrifying describe this book completely. It's a hair raising experience.