I read a the first of the Splatter Western series a year ago and loved it. Starving Zoe, along with the rest of the series, has been on my TBR ever since. Because I want to read more books than I could ever get to in my lifetime, the series has gone neglected but there is a time for every book and the time for Starving Zoe is now.

So why am I continuing the Splatter Western series with book 5 instead of book 2? For the answer to that question, we have to go back in time to April 20, 2023, the beginning of trouble for the author. I’m not going to retell the whole story; you can read it in Miller’s own words. The gist of it though is that someone who did not read his book made some accusations about him to his employer based on content in this book (that they didn’t read) and he ended up losing his dream job. And because Texas is a right to work state, there is no legal recourse. His story made the rounds in the horror book community and I, like many others, bought his book. I eventually also acquired a review copy of the audiobook.

Let’s talk about the audiobook for a moment. JR Owens is a new voice to my ears. I don’t see a lot of titles narrated by him on Audible but I hope to see that change because his voice and diction are perfectly suited to the genre. He really brought the Robert Jack to life.

Robert Jack. Holy crap, I hated this guy. He is a product of his time, so the way he talks and thinks makes sense and does put you in the time like any good period piece should. But I am a product of my time so I found myself cringing at a lot of his internal dialog. The way he painted himself like some kind of saint because he didn’t touch Zoe until she was legal marrying age even though he really wanted to had me rolling my eyes so hard. Everything I didn’t like about Robert Jack made him a great character in this story. He’s a nasty piece of work, making him a perfect lead in a splatter western. Like the others in the series, the cover art is stunning and gives you a glimpse of the plot. This fairly short book is unrelentingly violent, which puts it right up my alley. My fellow splatter fiends will love it.