The Devil's Hand

by M.J. Hayes

Western Fictioneers 2022 Peacemaker Award finalist for
BEST FIRST WESTERN NOVEL

K.C. Finn of Readers' Favorite gives it five stars; calls it "truly superb" and "an unmissable new read for the western genre."

"He's gonna have us all on easy street before ya know it."
Easy street. I wasn't even sure what that meant, but they all kept sayin' it. Easy street.

Val Verde County Texas, 1903. Officially the days of the Wild West may be gone, but the desperadoes and badmen that inhabited its stark bloody landscape are far from it.

When the son of wealthy banker turned rancher Adolphus Becker is kidnapped, it falls on the broad shoulders of legendary Ranger Ricardo "Ruck" Rivas to bring the culprits in to justice. Rivas is the veteran of more than 20 years of outstanding Ranger service, but this case may prove to be more than even he can handle.

The story is told from the perspective of an unnamed newspaper reporter, whose luck it was to be granted an interview with Billy—an innocent young man seduced into evil by a clever, charming, narcissistic killer—on the eve of his execution. The tale is fast-paced, gritty and violent, and leaves all of those involved with scars that may prove too deep to ever fully heal.

263 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 21, 2021

About the author

M.J. Hayes is the author of five stand-alone novels including his newest release: The Two Fathers of Walter Red Blanket. His books are noted for their attention to detail, historical accuracy, and true to life characters.

Reviews

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intense western. Very intense.

[Just Another English Major · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book feels like a classic. Beyond the shoot outs and the outlaws and the sheriffs (but honestly, who doesn't love all that?), its core is a tragedy of fate. Billy joins the ranks of innocents I desperately wish to pull out of their books and save, who have perhaps already come out of their books from being so real in talking directly to their reader as if they were your friend--or someone who has finally bothered to listen to them (Huckleberry Finn, Holden Caulfield, Ponyboy, Esther Greenwood, even 𝘊𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘰𝘰'𝘴 𝘕𝘦𝘴𝘵's Billy...). The mixing of perspectives between Billy's account and the unbiased newspaperman's "what really happened" makes your heart break even further for the main character, and while you hate the villain for what he's done to the boy's life you cannot help but love every moment he is on the page. His unhinged nature covered with charm is as entertaining as it is terrifying. I do not want to get into spoilers, so I am being a bit vague, but the book's thesis statement in its final, adrenaline-filled chapters was left hanging in my head days after the read.

[Peter R. Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent novel from M. J. Hayes! It’s hard to believe that it is not a true story. This is in part because the author’s character portrayal seems so realistic, not over-simplified, and certainly not shaped by any formula of what is a good and a bad person, which seems to characterize the story writings of so many authors writing about the Wild West of the late 1800s. Unlike the latter, this is a novel to be read slowly, to be absorbed as it goes along. I would add that, while there don’t seem to be the thrilling twists that so many thriller writers seem to favor to sell their stories, the story line is anything but predictable.

[William l Hancock sr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wildbill

Some of the best reading I have seen great history a lot of readers went into this book looking forward to the next book