A Hat Full of Stories by Steve Vernon is an absolute blast. It contains three short stories that are each Weird Westerns in their own right. What takes these stories and transforms them from ordinary is the singular voice that Vernon used to tell them in. These are tall tales told in bars and around campfires, growing each and every time they are told.

There are lines that you are going to want to highlight and come back to on every page. It's a form of backwoods storytelling where the metaphors are bolder and bigger than you could imagine. When the trailer doors swing open its like the crack of judgment day and then there was the kind of frog drowning rain that made a man think of building arks and gathering animals. And then there's the girl with a face that'd make a freight train think about taking a long walk down a dirt road.

These stories are irreverent. They are boldly told and take you on a journey hitchhiking on lonely roads where things seem to happen. The stories have bewitching ladies and no-good grifting losers. There are angels and devils and sins and sinners and bus rides with monsters and cold-hearted bastards. There are Main Street gunfights and brain- stealing thugs. Just chock full of good stuff. ( )