If it was down to cover alone, J Todd Scott’s effort might just end up as book of the year. But it’s what’s inside that really matters and The Far Empty is set in the outlaw country just inside Texas on the Mexican border. The sheriff’s son Caleb is wondering where his mother went a year after she disappeared, meanwhile the sheriff is a despot known locally as ‘the Judge’. And ‘the Judge’ won’t like it much when his deputy Chris Cherry starts asking questions about things like the body found in the desert which looks like a case of murder. It’s a novel that moves at a great pace and has plenty of gritty, messed-up characters. Read the full review here.