title: A Book of Tongues: Volume One of the Hexslinger Series
author:  Gemma Files 
description: A Pinkerton detective infiltrates a Wild West gang led by a spell-casting preacher in this boundary-busting horror&ndash;fantasy debut. Agent Ed Morrow is dispatched by a professor of magical research to evaluate the hexslinging abilities of Rev. Asher Rook, a renegade chaplain who survived his own hanging, and his lover, the prickly sharpshooter Chess Pargeter. As Morrow becomes part of the gang, the Aztec goddess Ixchel slowly seduces Rook into a bloody ritual marriage that endangers Pargeter and leads their followers down a road to hell. Files smoothly weaves an unusual magic system, Aztec mythology, and a raunchily explicit gay love story into a classic western tale of outlaws and revenge. Though it grows somewhat cumbersome in the leadup to a cliffhanger that demands resolution in the planned sequel, this promising debut fully delivers both sizzling passions and dark chills. <I>(May)</I> <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  > > SERVING THE VISCOUNT
  
  
  > > Her mouth speaks lies, yet her lips tell the truth...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > ROSELYN FRANCIS
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > CONTENTS
  
  > [Thank you](index_split_003.html#filepos4239)
  
  > [About the book](index_split_004.html#filepos4654)
  
  > [Chapter 1](index_split_005.html#filepos6620)
  
  > [Chapter 2](index_split_006.html#filepos25820)
  
  > [Chapter 3](index_split_007.html#filepos44251)
  
  > [Chapter 4](index_split_008.html#filepos61692)
  
  > [Chapter 5](index_split_009.html#filepos78711)
  
  > [Chapter 6](index_split_010.html#filepos98381)
  
  > [Chapter 7](index_split_011.html#filepos118632)
  
  > [Chapter 8](index_split_012.html#filepos137120)
  
  > [Chapter 9](index_split_013.html#filepos156557)
  
  > [Chapter 10](index_split_014.html#filepos181945)
  
  > [Chapter 11](index_split_015.html#filepos196855)
  
  > [Chapter 12](index_split_016.html#filepos231947)
  
  > [Epilogue](index_split_017.html#filepos260107)
  
  > [Extended Epilogue](index_split_018.html#filepos279277)
  
  > [Afterword](index_split_019.h