What happens when evil arrives, draped in holy linen?
When a mysterious rider arrives in the frontier town of Bastion, Wyoming bearing a church bell and the promise of divine blessings to come, the townspeople see providence where they should see warning. Against the indifference of the engulfing plains that surround them, the stranger insists that God has chosen Bastion to be his chosen land, a message happily received by the community’s desire for meaning and the ambition of its mayor.
But does something more insidious than prophecy lurk behind the visitor’s words? The question lingers on the minds of the town’s bartender, sheriff, and young deputy as storms both literal and allegorical fall upon them. Can they overcome a rising tide of illusion, misdirection, and mass-hysteria before the flames of conviction burn Bastion to ash?
Told in evocative yet focused prose, American Petrichor pulls inspiration from Germany’s 1534 Munster Rebellion to remind us just how easily man’s institutions—and the people that build them—can mistake malevolence for providence. It will appeal to readers of The Fisherman, Blood Meridian, and The Devil All the Time.
