The Six-Gun Tarot

If H.P. Lovecraft wrote a Western, it might look something like R.S. Belcher's The Six-Gun Tarot, though Belcher certainly doesn't have Lovecraft's insane talents. Mash-up genres fascinate me, and this one has almost everything.  Besides engaging in basic Western tropes like a sheriff who's neck is criss-crossed with rope scars, we have an Indian whose father is a coyote; a woman who was trained by the pirate Anne Bonney into some sort of all-woman ninja society; a treasure-trove of Mormon artifacts, including a sword that can cut through anything; another woman who has died, but her head is kept alive in a jar; and Lucifer shows up occasionally.

The main plot concerns some sort of cult that is trying to unleash a giant worm god that is trapped under a silver mine. They do this by turning the solid citizens of Golgotha, Nevada into some kind of zombie. This is the Lovecraftian stuff--the words "elder god" are not used, but the implication is clear.

There are all sorts of subplots. There is a teenage boy, on the run after murdering those who murdered his pa. He has in his possession his pa's jade eye, which has all sorts of mystical powers. Another involves the mayor of the town, a Mormon, who has two wives but he himself is gay, fooling around with the piano player from the saloon (called Ringo). Then there's Auggie, the storekeeper, who so loved his wife that a local scientist contrived to keep her alive by putting her head in a jar.

There's a certain playfulness to The Six-Gun Tarot, and there was no playfulness in Lovecraft. I think almost anyone who reads this book will like Mutt the most, the deputy sheriff who is part Indian and part coyote. What's interesting about this book is that it makes references to things that happened before, but I believe this is the first book in the series. Lines like, "The last sheriff  managed to get himself hollowed out, filled with sawdust, and sewed up again--it was a long story" make me think I missed something.

If The Six-Gun Tarot has too much going on, that's at least better than a book with nothing going on. There are some groaners as certain characters manage to cheat death, but it's all in good fun. One must be in the mood for occasionally cheesy prose like, "A horrible sound--the essence of skeletal hunger and bone-scraping pain simplified through a billion red-swollen screaming colic baby throats, vibrating like a trapped moth's beating wings."

Oh, I should add that though this book has the word "Tarot" in the title, and each chapter is the name of a tarot cards, there is no mention of tarot in the book. I have no idea what the significance is.