The Dead Ringer
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Apr 21, 2026
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- $14.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
This haunting Western story features a man brought back from the dead to exact revenge upon those who have wronged him, only to discover that the world is capable of good—from the author of The Houseboat and Stag
Montana, 1935. Bludgeoned and buried alive by his bank-robbing partner and half brother, Benjamin Kilt should have been a corpse. But now very much on this side of heaven, Kilt’s quest for revenge will be unlike anything the West has ever seen.
Kilt is joined on his journey by Bonnie, a thirteen-year-old Indigenous girl he somewhat reluctantly rescues from her abusive “keeper.” It is through Bonnie’s recollections in old age of Kilt’s thorny quest for justice that Dane Bahr’s masterful tale unwinds, showcasing the tragic, complicated history of the two brothers and leading to a showdown at the very ranch where they were raised.
For readers of Charles Portis, Elmore Leonard, and Annie Proulx, The Dead Ringer explores the slippery justification of questionable deeds done for honorable ends, a bold and haunting novel featuring a man brought back from the dead to exact revenge, only to discover that the world is capable of good no matter how tragic the end may be.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bahr (Stag) delivers a bold, propulsive tale of violence and vengeance in the early-20th-century American West. The action opens with outlaw Ben Kilt emerging from a shallow grave in the Montana wilderness, only to narrowly survive a mountain lion attack. He's saved by Bonnie Grace, a 13-year-old Native American girl, and brought to the remote cabin where she lives with her enslaver, whom Ben kills. He then takes Bonnie along to help find the man who buried him alive: his half brother and bank-robbing partner, Sidney Bosco. Bahr mostly sticks with Ben's viewpoint as his quest for retribution ramps up, but occasional interludes from Bonnie's perspective inject the otherwise sinewy narrative with philosophical flourishes ("One must embrace the changes and in turn change with them," the teenager muses of her entanglement with Ben). As the body count increases, Ben's thoughts take on a bleakly cerebral valence of their own: "Dying's all the same, kiddo. There's no beating that," he tells Bonnie after killing three men who've accosted her. Eventually, the mash-up of bloody violence and high-minded prose threatens to grow wearisome, but Bahr's outré vision and well-developed characters save the day. Thriller fans seeking something off the beaten path should check this out.
