James Crowley is a former outlaw who didn't always make the best choices in life, but he has no regrets about the choice that ended it. Crowley was as rough as they come, but he did have his limits. That turned out not to be a good fit with the leader of his gang, who eventually ended him for standing up to prevent the rape of a captured woman. Perhaps it was that final act of redemption that caused the White Throne to interrupt his journey to hell and select him to serve as a Black Badge, but he doesn't really know that. In fact, he doesn't really know much. His handler, Shar, sends him to deal with the darker evils that roam the American West: nephalem, werewolves, shapeshifters, and yetis, just to name a few. That makes him part bounty hunter, and part supernatural sheriff, but he has no earthly authority, so he is constantly trying to figure out how to take care of his quarry without revealing to everyone else that he himself is undead.

Weird West is a sub-genre of Sci-Fi/Fantasy that I haven't dabbled into before, but Cold as Hell caught my eye and I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did and I'm also glad I chose to listen to this one because the narrator, Roger Clark, is just perfect. As soon as I heard James Crowley's voice I knew I was going to enjoy the story. Crowley may be the main character, but he isn't funny or entertaining and he doesn't have superpowers, although he is able to "divine" the last 30 seconds of someone's life, which is a power he uses to hunt down their killers.  He's just a rough and rugged wild west Marshall type who is doing his best to keep evil in check, and that's a storyline I can get behind. This book is the start of a series but it is not a cliffhanger, so it also works as a standalone title.

Video game fans take note. The narrator of this audiobook, Roger Clark, is also the voice of the Arthur Morgan, the protagonist in Red Dead Redemption 2, which makes him the perfect fit to voice James Crowley.