David Ohle

The Devil in Kansas David Ohle

Three short novels by the author of the cult classic Motorman

COTTAGE INDUSTRY

A bloody family drama about the bastard child of Charles Manson

After aiding in the murder of his aunt, Charles Manson's illegitimate son starts his own home euthanasia business. Frequently interrupted by a PBS radio broadcast on American culture, Junior and Lorna capitalize on the population's desire to end the suffering of their family members with quick and painless death while living in their parents' basement. As the business grows, so does Junior's love for the job.

WIND WAGON

An absurdist western for the screen

After killing a gold prospector, shooting his own foot with a rifle, and killing a smithy, Howard Dewey sits in a jail cell, marking his time on the wall with lampblack, watching crickets copulate, sticking pill bugs in his ears, and memorizing the Bible. While Dewey's beard grows longer, his failed partner in crime, Jonah, settles down on a worthless homestead to farm prairie dogs with his mail-order bride from Kansas City. A baby boy is born to them, four months premature with a birthmark the shape of a vestigial third eye. Meanwhile, her entire family put in the ground by Dewey and Jonah, Miss Katie Binder, a woman with the power to heal all addictions, waits in an empty house for the legendary wind wagon to come tearing across the desert.

THE DEVIL IN KANSAS

Philip K. Dick meets the Cohen Brothers

After Sherry lights her house on fire with her motocross star husband trapped inside, she sets out on a road trip with her seventeen-year-old son, Joey - a talented musical saw player - across the country and into a bizarre alternate universe called Witchy Toe, which Joey has previously visited. Like Terry Gilliam's Brazil or the corporate world of Kafka, the rules in this alien city change daily, on the whims of unseen masters. As they struggle to survive in this strange new world, Sherry's not-quite-dead husband sets out on a slaughtering rampage from Colorado to the heart of Texas.