His chain of reasoning is comically thin: he notes that elk are herbivorous, and Peta is a vegetarian this is enough to bulk out his suspicions. After he realises that the spirit is pursuing him, Lewis starts to suspect that his girlfriend Peta is none other than the Elk Woman. The novel’s humour takes on an element of farce, deriving largely from Lewis’ paranoia. Belted out in a breathless present tense that keeps both a constant pace and a sense of humour - at one point Jones manages to use “Three Stooges” as a verb - The Only Good Indians pops and fizzes with invention and wit. One look at Jones’ writing style, however, should be enough to confirm that the book is something special indeed. Certainly, the bare bones of the narrative are nothing new in the realm of folk horror-tinged slashers: a group of people trigger a monster attack and are killed off one by one. When the plot is summarised, The Only Good Indians - a novel by Stephen Graham Jones that won multiple awards over the course of the year - may sound a little seen-it-all-before. Ricky was first, Lewis may be next - and what of Gabe and Cass? It begins to dawn on him that the spirit of the mother-elk has finally returned, seeking vengeance for the wasted body of its baby.

Elsewhere, Lewis glimpses a weird apparition: a woman with the head of an elk. Ten years later Ricky, who has long since left the reservation, dies in mysterious circumstances (although these circumstances would be somewhat obscured by the headline reporting his death, which reads “Indian Man Killed in Dispute Outside Bar”). Then comes another discovery: the elk was not only alive but also pregnant - and contrary to tradition, the body of its calf ends up going to waste. It takes two more shots to put the wounded female out of its misery. When the time comes to cut up the bodies for easier transport, however, it turns out that one of the elk is still alive. The hunting trip is bountiful, and they succeed in bagging nine elk. Four young Blackfeet friends - Lewis, Gabe, Cass and Ricky - decide to go elk-hunting in an area of their reservation set aside for elders.

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