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Bulletproof Witch #3
Arkton At High Noon
Temperance Whiteoak is the last surviving heir to her grandfather’s legacy. Gunslinger. Daemon-hunter. Witch. Capable of calling forth powerful magicks with the pull of a trigger. Alongside her talking horse, Astor, she travels across Korvana, searching for the daemon that killed her family and destroyed her town.
After returning to the capital city of Arkton with her latest prize, Temperance is enjoying some much-earned rest and relaxation. Her time, however, is cut short by the appearance of a female warden, one of the guardians that protect Korvana from the shadows. The warden has a murder to solve, and the fate of the city itself hangs in the balance.
Unfortunately for the two women, there are forces that would rather this mystery stay dead and buried. It'll take more than a handful of hexbullets to see Temperance through to the end. Can she pull the pieces together before Arkton tears itself apart?
ARKTON AT HIGH NOON is the third installment in a planned eight-part series. The book includes six illustrations by artist Jin A Lee.
After returning to the capital city of Arkton with her latest prize, Temperance is enjoying some much-earned rest and relaxation. Her time, however, is cut short by the appearance of a female warden, one of the guardians that protect Korvana from the shadows. The warden has a murder to solve, and the fate of the city itself hangs in the balance.
Unfortunately for the two women, there are forces that would rather this mystery stay dead and buried. It'll take more than a handful of hexbullets to see Temperance through to the end. Can she pull the pieces together before Arkton tears itself apart?
ARKTON AT HIGH NOON is the third installment in a planned eight-part series. The book includes six illustrations by artist Jin A Lee.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2019
19 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Francis James Blair
14 books15 followersJames is an accountant living in Eastern Washington. He started writing in 2015 after a dream left a story in his head that he couldn’t make go away. He’s been typing at the keyboard furiously ever since, and probably won’t stop until sometime around noon on the day of his funeral.
His current published works include the Bulletproof Witch Series, the Books of the Ascendant, as well as a short story titled ‘For Want of a Sword’ in the Roll of the Dice III anthology.
His current published works include the Bulletproof Witch Series, the Books of the Ascendant, as well as a short story titled ‘For Want of a Sword’ in the Roll of the Dice III anthology.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 1, 2022
With the first Bulletproof Witch, I wasn't sold, not because there was anything wrong with it - it was great - but because it felt more like a tease than anything. A snapshot of a world I wanted to get my teeth into. The second book grew on the first book's promise, offering a new landscape - replacing badlands for snowlands - adding mystery and horror, and greatly deepening its main character, as well as fleshing out supporting characters.
This third book is an enhancement again. Once again the setting changes (I genuinely love it when every book feels different) - now our Pistol Witch is alone and out of her element in a big, sprawling city. I slightly missed the countryside, but only because landscape writing (or cinematography) is one of my favourite features of westerns. The book here is substantially longer again than the previous, and yet more of a showcase of Blair's talents. His confidence in not just writing, but in his world and characters, has never been more on display. Our main character Temperance, especially, gets far more to chew her teeth on than the previous two books combined.
The complexity of the book has also ramped up. There is a lot of mystery and intrigue, and a lot of characters, to the point my brain was really engaged working out WTF was going on (in a good way!). We follow the MC as she is in a similar position, with intrigue piled on intrigue. Questions pile up, and the tension increases.
But in case you mistook this as some quiet plodding thriller, never fear, the series' most innovative ingredient - the magical hexbullets - have more to them than ever before. Blair is clearly enjoying himself coming up with all the different spell effects, making for excitingly unpredictable and inventive gunfights. Hexbullets are also given much more to do with the general plot.
And the plot now really seems to be gearing up - this book feels the most like Blair setting the stage for things to come, for a grand, full-series storyline. There are things teased to us, in dreams, in characters, in backstory, in unanswered questions, that have yet to see resolution. But the story is growing from its nascent, more innocent beginnings, and the scope of the writing expanding to contain it. We have more to understand about Temperance's backstory, that is for sure - but also dark, climactic, possibly epic, and almost certainly terrible things are in her future...
This is more than ever before a series to follow to the end.
This third book is an enhancement again. Once again the setting changes (I genuinely love it when every book feels different) - now our Pistol Witch is alone and out of her element in a big, sprawling city. I slightly missed the countryside, but only because landscape writing (or cinematography) is one of my favourite features of westerns. The book here is substantially longer again than the previous, and yet more of a showcase of Blair's talents. His confidence in not just writing, but in his world and characters, has never been more on display. Our main character Temperance, especially, gets far more to chew her teeth on than the previous two books combined.
The complexity of the book has also ramped up. There is a lot of mystery and intrigue, and a lot of characters, to the point my brain was really engaged working out WTF was going on (in a good way!). We follow the MC as she is in a similar position, with intrigue piled on intrigue. Questions pile up, and the tension increases.
But in case you mistook this as some quiet plodding thriller, never fear, the series' most innovative ingredient - the magical hexbullets - have more to them than ever before. Blair is clearly enjoying himself coming up with all the different spell effects, making for excitingly unpredictable and inventive gunfights. Hexbullets are also given much more to do with the general plot.
And the plot now really seems to be gearing up - this book feels the most like Blair setting the stage for things to come, for a grand, full-series storyline. There are things teased to us, in dreams, in characters, in backstory, in unanswered questions, that have yet to see resolution. But the story is growing from its nascent, more innocent beginnings, and the scope of the writing expanding to contain it. We have more to understand about Temperance's backstory, that is for sure - but also dark, climactic, possibly epic, and almost certainly terrible things are in her future...
This is more than ever before a series to follow to the end.
June 13, 2021
The third Bulletproof Witch novel is one that I very much enjoyed but feel lacks some of the Weird West feel of the other books. Temperance gets arrested in the capital and is forced to investigate an ambassador's murder with one of the secret police. Sadly, Ms. Scrimshaw has too much of a fondness of the Empire and I utterly loathe those guys. Temperance is terrible at investigation and does not hold with modernized industry. Still, I had a lot of fun reading this.
October 10, 2019
Got to beta read this one, and all I can say is:
Hah, I got to read this before all of the rest of you! It's awesome, and I get to beta read it, and you didn't. Ha!
Hah, I got to read this before all of the rest of you! It's awesome, and I get to beta read it, and you didn't. Ha!
June 23, 2020
Left me wanting more
Started out slow to begin with but gained momentum. Plenty of mystery, and tension. The storyline was interesting, with some welcome back story on the protagonist Temperance. While there wasn't a cliffhanger, it left me wanting more in the end.
Started out slow to begin with but gained momentum. Plenty of mystery, and tension. The storyline was interesting, with some welcome back story on the protagonist Temperance. While there wasn't a cliffhanger, it left me wanting more in the end.
November 15, 2019
Another great book in the Bulletproof Witch series! I really enjoy seeing the world advance and expand, as well as the ramifications that come with that. April 2020 seems a long wait for the next one, but I'm sure it'll be worth it.
Also, I loved the little Easter egg involving John Bierce's Errant Mage series.
Also, I loved the little Easter egg involving John Bierce's Errant Mage series.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews