SYNOPSIS - RUBY OF THE RAILS
Maxx Shadow, a private detective, is burned-out from chasing frauds who fake injuries to collect insurance settlements. Everything changes one day when an acquaintance from Maxx’s past, now long forgotten, refers a client for a different type of case. A famous and eccentric horror writer tells Maxx that her nephew disappeared fifteen years ago when he went train-hopping during a college summer break.
When she shows Maxx a photograph of the man she believes responsible for the crime and wants him brought to justice, mental images blocked from Maxx’s memory suddenly resurface. The man in the photo is known as Slouch, the notorious leader of the Iron Rail Anarchists (IRA)—a band of thirteen evil, train-hopping hobos, believed to have supernatural powers.
To make matters worse, the IRA members are granted their powers because they worship an evil deity—a cursed monster, known as Ruby, doomed to forever ride the rails with an insatiable appetite for human hearts.
Twenty-five years ago, Maxx had a near death encounter with the IRA and Ruby who scarred his face. A head injury, along with Ruby’s “spiritual fog,” has made Maxx forget the incident—until now! Maxx is told that Ruby and his evil brood have returned to Chicago to gather for a sinister purpose.
How can Maxx Shadow, a mere mortal, possibly fight a supernatural monster? The answer is simple: he recruits a supernatural creature of his own—his junior associate, Roger Sparks, whom Maxx has long suspected to be a vampire.
Even with a warrior from the ranks of the undead, they still have their share of troubles, especially when they learn that the IRA have come to town to induct a new member into their evil fold and the initiation ceremony
requires the sacrifice of an innocent child.
Maxx and Roger also encounter an enemy rival hobo gang from the Freight Train Riders of America (FTRA). Although these hobos are actually a radical splinter faction of the FTRA and, in most ways, are no better than the IRA, Maxx and Roger still enlist their aid to deal with the greater evil, albeit reluctantly.
Can they still prevail?
When she shows Maxx a photograph of the man she believes responsible for the crime and wants him brought to justice, mental images blocked from Maxx’s memory suddenly resurface. The man in the photo is known as Slouch, the notorious leader of the Iron Rail Anarchists (IRA)—a band of thirteen evil, train-hopping hobos, believed to have supernatural powers.
To make matters worse, the IRA members are granted their powers because they worship an evil deity—a cursed monster, known as Ruby, doomed to forever ride the rails with an insatiable appetite for human hearts.
Twenty-five years ago, Maxx had a near death encounter with the IRA and Ruby who scarred his face. A head injury, along with Ruby’s “spiritual fog,” has made Maxx forget the incident—until now! Maxx is told that Ruby and his evil brood have returned to Chicago to gather for a sinister purpose.
How can Maxx Shadow, a mere mortal, possibly fight a supernatural monster? The answer is simple: he recruits a supernatural creature of his own—his junior associate, Roger Sparks, whom Maxx has long suspected to be a vampire.
Even with a warrior from the ranks of the undead, they still have their share of troubles, especially when they learn that the IRA have come to town to induct a new member into their evil fold and the initiation ceremony
requires the sacrifice of an innocent child.
Maxx and Roger also encounter an enemy rival hobo gang from the Freight Train Riders of America (FTRA). Although these hobos are actually a radical splinter faction of the FTRA and, in most ways, are no better than the IRA, Maxx and Roger still enlist their aid to deal with the greater evil, albeit reluctantly.
Can they still prevail?