New Release — PUNISHED (A Dark Western Boxed Set) by Jackson Lowry

BOOK ONE: UNDEAD

The day the Yankees came and took everything from wealthy landowner Vincent Bayonne was a day he’d never forget—how could he live with the uncertainty of not knowing what happened to his wife and children? Forced to watch as his plantation was burned to the ground by one of the slaves, Bayonne has sunk to the bottom of the barrel. A drunkard who has only his consuming hatred to sustain him, he makes his way from Louisiana to San Francisco, barely managing to survive on the Barbary Coast.

Just when he thinks he has nothing to live for, he discovers that William Sherman, the former slave who torched his home, is alive and well—and Sherman bears a hatred for his former master to match Bayonne’s. When Sherman bests Bayonne in a fight, the once-wealthy Southerner wakes up in a coffin, prepared for a fate he could never have imagined.

Hatred fuels Bayonne’s survival, but Sherman has cursed his nemesis with powerful voodoo magic that dooms him to an eternity of only half-living in the twilight existence of a zombie. Can an old Chinaman provide the answers Bayonne needs to survive in the world of the UNDEAD?

BOOK TWO: NAVAJO WITCHES

Vincent Bayonne has gone from wealthy Louisiana plantation owner to penniless drunk in a very short time. But that’s not all. William Sherman, the ex-slave who put the torch to Bayonne’s beloved plantation, Dark Oaks, has done the unspeakable. Sherman, a voodoo priest, has placed a curse on Bayonne and made him one of the undead—living, but not truly alive.

The elusive Dr. Glencannon is the only man who can stave off the sense-dulling effects of the curse with his elixir—but Bayonne is always one step behind him. A young Navajo boy tells Bayonne his uncle, Begay, can help—but for a price—killing the skinwalker that has been terrorizing the Navajo people.

Though Bayonne resents having to hunt the supernatural shapeshifter, there is no choice for him. For Begay, true to his word, concocts a potion that holds the zombie traits at bay and allows Bayonne to do what he must do—including hunting the skinwalker.

As Bayonne stalks the skinwalker, he makes a surprising discovery. Will he be able to kill the beast? And can he make it back to New Orleans in time to meet the Queen of the Cape when William Sherman comes ashore?

BOOK THREE: BAYOU VOODOO

Hanged twice, but still . . . undead.

Vincent Bayonne’s luck may have run out at last. The former plantation owner must find William, the freed slave who placed the zombie curse on him, if he wants to avoid the unholy fate of a living death. To reach William in New Orleans, he makes his perilous way across the untamed American frontier while escaping from US Army patrols, dodging lawmen and railroad detectives after the reward on his head, and trying not to get killed by those who hate him because of his cruel rule over Dark Oaks Plantation.

Bayonne's quest for revenge is now a fight for sheer survival. The medicine he needs to hold back the slow coarsening of his body and mind, turning him into a zombie, is long gone. His only hope is to find William, and to do that he must first get Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, to befriend him. His only allies are a beautiful woman from his past and his own incredible strength while under the curse. With the choice of becoming totally undead or begging those he hates most for aid, Bayonne plunges into the darkest recesses of black magic, hoping for a cure—and redemption.

EXCERPT

     Bayonne let out a roar of fury that was swallowed by the fog. He made his way to the pier where he looked out at the Queen of the Cape. He drew his pistol and fired it at the distant ship. The recoil hurt his hand. Again, he fired—and then, again.

     "I hate you, William, I hate you and I'll see you in hell!"

     "That you will, Massah."

     Bayonne spun. His pistol was knocked from his grip and made a loud splash in the Bay. He was face to face with his former slave.

     "Ah'll do moah than kill you," William said, a look of hatred on his face matching Bayonne's. "Yo's gonna lose yoah soul! Then you die!"

     Bayonne roared in rage, grabbed for William's throat, and was beaten to his knees.

     "Oh, yeah, Massa, you gonna hate me good foah this. Foah a long, long time in hell!"

     A heavy wood belaying pin crashed again into the side of his head. Bayonne collapsed to the pier.

     Bayonne had the feeling that hours had passed when he fought back to consciousness, darkness wrapping him completely. His shoulders were pressed into the sides of a narrow box. A coffin! That son of a bitch had put him into a coffin! He tried to scream. He couldn't. His mouth was filled with salt and his lips were sewn shut.