Hollow Out the Dark

Description

Award-winning author James Wade blends atmospheric prose with soul-stirring themes in Hollow Out the Dark, a gothic adventure set against a Depression-era landscape where a whiskey war threatens to decimate a small Texas town.

A veteran of the Great War, Jesse Cole is grateful for the quiet life he now leads. But when his closest friend runs afoul of local criminals Frog and Squirrel Fenley, Jesse is forced to spin his moral compass and enter a violent and volatile underworld. There he encounters corrupt lawmen, hired assassins, and a dark family secret that will upend all he once knew.

Complicating matters are Texas Ranger Amon Atkins–who arrives to investigate the Fenleys just as their empire is threatened by a deadly new competitor–and the green-eyed, raven-haired Adaline, a love Jesse thought he’d lost forever.

With resources scarce and winter falling hard on the town, a desperate Jesse must choose between the law and the lawless and find a way to survive while still protecting the people he loves.

A heart-pounding tale full of plot-twisting revelations, Hollow Out the Dark brings readers into a whiskey-fueled world where everyone has a secret, and love everlasting balances on the edge of a knife.

Binding Type: Paperback
Author: James Wade
Published: 10/07/2025
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
ISBN: 9798228569317
Pages: 368
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 0.80″ H x 8.40″ L x 5.50″ W

About the Author
Wade, James: –

James Wade was awarded the 2026 Dobie Paisano Fellow from the University of Texas at Austin, the 2026 Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Novel, and is the youngest novelist to win two Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America. He also received the MPIBA’s prestigious Reading the West Award, and his debut novel, All Things Left Wild, was listed as one of the most influential Westerns of the twenty-first century. Beasts of the Earth was named a Best Book of 2022 by both Deep South Magazine and The Southern Review of Books. James is a four-time finalist for the Austin Chronicle‘s Best Writer in Austin award, and his nonfiction work has appeared in Texas Highways and Writer’s Digest, among others. James was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2026. He lives and writes in the Texas Hill Country with his wife and children.