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Literature / The Book With No Name

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A novel written by an anonymous writer.

It's been five years since the first time the Bourbon Kid, a mysterious figure with no identity or motives, slaughtered his way through the South-American town of Santa Mondega, leaving more than three hundred people dead in his wake. The town is now preparing for the upcoming eclipse and moon festival, which brings more than tourists this year. Such as a detective specialized in the supernatural sent to investigate a series of brutal murders with the help of a local inspector obsessed with the Bourbon Kid; a woman who woke up from a five-year long coma with no memory of who she is; a bounty hunter there to work for the local mob boss; and two monks who are looking for something that was stolen from them. Add to that a biker on a mission from God, an Elvis impersonator/hitman, a couple of kids who have no idea what mess they're walking into, and an unlucky bartender, and the plot thickens fast. Especially now that the Bourbon Kid might be back, and possibly killing everyone who reads from a book with no name nor author...


The Book With No Name contains examples of:

  • Action Girl: When it comes to protecting her boyfriend, Kacy isn't afraid to pick up a shotgun and aim it at the many armed men threatening him. And unbeknown to most including herself, Jessica is a seemingly unkillable vampire and killing machine.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Jessica is attracted to bounty hunter Jefe and his tales of all the murders he's done, and they quickly end up sharing a hotel room.
  • All Monks Know Kung-Fu: The monks Peto and Kyle have no idea of how the outside world works and are constantly tricked by people taking advantage of their innocence, so it's convenient one of the things they learned at the monastery was to master martial arts.
  • Anonymous Author: Both The Book With No Name and The Book With No Name's The Book With No Name are listed without author.
  • Amnesiac Hero: Jessica wakes up from a coma with no memory of who she is, only bribes of what happened before she was shot. It later turns out she isn't a hero, though.
  • Anyone Can Die: Of all the named characters, only Bourbon Kid, Peto, Sanchez and Kacy & Dante are still alive, with Jessica barely surviving once again.
  • Artificial Limbs: Rodeo Rex has a metal hand that he built himself, after Bourbon Kid broke it in an arm-wrestling match.
  • Artistic License – Space: You can not create a permanent local eclipse by stopping the rotation of the moon around the earth because the earth is spinning.
  • Ass Pull - Infra-red sunglasses? From a fancy-dress shop? Really?
  • Bad Guy Bar: The Tapioca apparently hosts the worst of the Santa Mondega population. It's regularly attended by criminals, hitmen, rapists and other unsavory people.
  • The Bartender: Sanchez.
  • Big Bad: Bourbon Kid isn't actually the Big Bad; it's Archibald Somers, who is not only trying to find the Eye of the Moon through his son El Santino with the goal to bring eternal darkness, but also kills anyone who finds the book with no name and frames the Kid for everything.
  • Broken Pedestal: Rex reveals to Kyle and Peto that father Taos might not be the saintly man they think he is; their meeting with the now vampirized Milo and Hezekiah proves him right.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Elvis: A very skilled hitman who wears an Elvis Presley costume wherever he goes.
  • Ceiling Corpse: The ultimate fate of Elvis is to be nailed to the ceiling with many, many knives. They don't hold him for long though.
  • City of Adventure: Santa Mondega.

  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The monks are completely clueless about the way the world works outside of their temple, but they are also some of the fiercest fighters in town. Jessica, as an unkillable creature, is even worse.
  • Decoy Protagonist: Miles Jensen is the closest the book has to a truly good character, as even the monks are told to do whatever is necessary to find the Eye. He ends up being easily kidnapped by the people he was investigating and killed by his partner the moment he discovers the truth, without being able to do anything about it.
  • The Dreaded: El Santino is the most feared criminal in all of Santa Mondega, but he is nothing compared to Bourbon Kid, whose "name" is only whispered even five years after his last appearance.
  • *Drool* Hello: When Jefe investigates Dante's room, he doesn't immediately see the corpse of Elvis until he sees blood dripping from the ceiling.
  • Evil Old Folks: Archibald Sommers is revealed not only to be the Big Bad, but a 500 year-old vampire. Father Taos, while not as villainous is pretty bad and just as old.
  • Fictional Document: The Book With No Name from which the novel takes its name (still following?) that talks about the Eye of the Moon and Armand Xavier and Ishmael's quest to find the Holy Grail.
  • Freudian Excuse: For Bourbon Kid, seeing his mother killing herself after being vampirized.
  • Gorn: Some of the murders are insanely violent, and the novel doesn't shy away from describing them in all their gory details.
  • Gory Discretion Shot - Subverted from time to time by explaining exactly what was omitted from the viewer a few pages ago.
  • Guns Akimbo: Owing to the genre, several examples during the story with the most notable one being Bourbon kid and his two Škorpion submachine guns.
  • Ironic Echo Cut: At some point, Jensen and Somers suggest that Dante might be the Bourbon Kid himself. This is immediately followed by Dante doing something stupid, having no idea what he's doing and/or being way over his head.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Kacy and Dante spend the entire novel running away but during the shooting at the Tapioca they both show that they belong in this World of Badass just like the others.
  • MacGuffin - The Eye of the Moon. Jefe wants to find it for El Santino and Somers, who proposes the same deal to Sanchez and Elvis. Marcus and Dante don't know what it is but want to sell it, the monks want to take it back to their island, and the Bourbon Kid is interested in it as well.
  • Made of Iron: Jessica survives quite a lot of bullets because she is a vampire herself.
  • Malaproper: Captain Rockwell always getting the names of people wrong is a Running Gag.
  • Mexican Standoff: Toward the end, about ten people fighting over the Eye of the Moon and the hostage Dante are aiming at each other in the Tapioca, with the Bourbon Kid aiming at all of them. Kyle, El Santino, Miguel, Carlito, Jefe, a bartender and a random Elvis impersonator are killed; Jessica is once again almost dead, and Dante, Kacy, Peto, Sanchez and the Kid are the only survivors.
  • The Mole: Archibald Somers is a vampire working for the police department and pinning his murders on the Bourbon Kid.
  • More Dakka: Bourbon Kid is a walking armory who can shoot someone with a hundred bullets if necessary or if he feels like it.
  • The Movie Buff: One of the first thing Jensen and Somers find they have in common is their knowledge of cinema, for example discussing who they prefer between Ridley Scott and Tony Scott.
  • Never Heard That One Before: Jensen is expecting people to mock his interest in the supernatural by making X-Files jokes to him. The old fortune teller also mentions being used to smartasses knocking on her door, and answering to her "Who is it?" with "Shouldn't you know who I am if you really are a medium?".
  • Pointy-Haired Boss: Rockwell may as well be this, but judging the city on which they work is no wonder the police cant get away with much.
  • Red Herring: Bourbon Kid isn't the main villain; he's almost a distraction to the real Big Bad, Somers.
  • Rescue Romance: Sanchez was hoping for Jessica to fall for him after he saved her and took care of her for five years, but it doesn't happen. When he does it again at the end, he hopes it will work this time.
  • The Reveal: At the end, Archibald Somers being the Lord Of The Night and Bourbon Kid being Taos' son.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Revealed to be Bourbon Kid's objective against the family that murdered his mother. He's still evil, though.
  • Serial Killer: Bourbon Kid.
  • Shrouded in Myth: Bourbon Kid.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Many of the deaths are this, for example Elvis being nailed to the ceiling with several knifes.
  • Token Minority: Miles Jensen is this for the police department, being the only black guy.
  • Unexpected Genre Change: First it's a western, then a detective story, then a mystery thriller.
  • World of Badass: With a few exceptions, every single named character in Santa Mondega is a badass.
  • Wham Line: When Sanchez finally tells Jensen about the yellow Cadillac, he says that "Somers had his yellow Caddy stolen last night", thus revealing that he was the one who killed Thomas and Audrey.
  • Where It All Began: The Bourbon Kid made his first appearance in Sanchez' bar, and it's where the final confrontation over the Eye of the Moon takes place but not the climax, which is in the police station.
  • Wretched Hive: Santa Mondega might as well be the capital of crime. It's full of murderers, thieves and rapists, the cops are more interested in furthering their own careers than to solve crimes, and don't forget about the vampires and other supernatural creatures that apparently plague the city. And according to Rex, it's the undead capital of the world.
  • Those Two Guys: Miguel and Carlito, El Santino's two henchmen who are always seen together. Rumors is that they're gay. They're actually brothers.

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