An astonishing sojourn into the darkest parts of Western American lore.

THE DEVIL IS ALWAYS IN DISGUISE

A stranger appears at an isolated cabin in frontier America. He has no friends, and no apparent purpose. But as the sun disappears and the desert darkens, a series of strange and savage events start to unfold. 

Turning the western genre on its head, Ryan Ireland’s deeply affecting tale transports readers into a visceral and terrifying world of shape-shifters, shadows and the darkest parts of Western American lore.

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‘Expertly plotted, artfully executed, compulsively readable… a writer who has something to say.’

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‘Ireland blends fanciful history with magic realism to create a critical allegory of the American expansionist experience ... Intellectual in theme, literary in execution: think Gabriel García Márquez reimagining Little Big Man.’

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'Mythical, dangerous and deeply unsettling.'

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'Ireland’s intensely and brutally violent debut novel sweeps through period and place while exploring the role memory plays in the establishment of creation myths ... a barbaric vision of the West.’