Rose of Jericho

Grecian builds on the supernatural shenanigans of his previous weird western, Red Rabbit, with this ghoulishly entertaining variation on the zombie theme. In a preamble set in 1881 Kansas, enraged ex–Union soldier Moses Burke guns down the Grim Reaper, whom he believes to be responsible for the premature death of his young wife. When Moses discovers that the Reaper had a ledger full of future appointments with souls to be harvested, none of whom will now make their exit dates on time, he embarks for Ascension, Mass., seeking the assistance of allies from his earlier adventure—schoolteacher Rose Nettles and her witch companions Sadie and Rabbit Grace—to rectify his wrong. Meanwhile, in Ascension, matters of life and death are going off the rails: the terminally ill are rising from their deathbeds, the fatally maimed are conducting business as usual, and the corpses that should be piling up are not—nor are they (as news reports reveal) anywhere else in the nation. As the characters flail about trying to restore the natural order, Grecian paints a colorful portrait of a more superstitious America where the death of Death is believable and ghosts and angels shape the outcome of the grotesque incidents that follow. The result is a refreshingly original period dark fantasy. (Mar.)