John, her stepbrother, was in love with her and did all things for her in the name of love. She did it to her family but also the people in town, especially men. Kate was all about manipulation to get what she wanted. They were atrocious people! I say that as I laugh but from the book’s standpoint, they really were horrible people. “It just will not do to let people see the maggots that crawl inside you.” The Bender family just had a different way of achieving that. The people were humble and hard-working and did what they needed to survive. The story is set in the old west, which is a setting I’ve never read before. In the book they are a mixed family with Kate, the daughter, taking the lead on the killings. (3 / 5) In 1871, The Bender family became notorious for their serial killings. Now as the secrets festering beneath the soil of the family orchard threaten to bring them all to ruin, the Benders must sharpen their craft-or vanish themselves.Ĭheck Goodreads to see the book’s ratings. It’s only from those who are marked, those who travel alone and can easily disappear, that the Benders demand their pound of flesh.īut even a gifted seer like Kate can make a misstep. And why shouldn’t their family prosper? They’re careful. No one knows about their other business, the shortcut to a better life. Kate’s messages from the Beyond give their tedious dreams hope and her mother’s potions cure their little ills-for a price. Something dark and twisted has taken root at the Bender Inn.Īt first the townspeople of Cherryvale welcome the rising medium Kate Bender and her family. The winds shift nervously on the Kansas plain whispering of travelers lost and buried, whispering of witches. A sinister novel based on the real Bloody Benders, a family of serial killers in the old West bound by butchery and obscured by the shadows of American history.

All The Blood We Share by Camilla Bruce