Welcome to Whiskey Gulch: BOOK ONE (Ghost Town of SoreAss Creek - Whiskey Gulch 1)

Jo McGraw thought her seven-generation ranch was chaotic enough—between Grandma Mavis who drinks like a distillery, the Boone twins who bicker about everything, Peach Bellamy’s bar fights, Aggie’s bourbon-fueled writing, and fifteen spoiled dogs. Then she remembered the stories told about Whiskey Gulch—an abandoned 1800s town that isn’t abandoned at all. The saloon lights flicker at midnight, the sheriff ghost fines Jo for “standing too sassy,” and even Booger the golden retriever gets arrested for “unlicensed wagging.”

Now Grandma’s heckling a ghost preacher, Peach is swearing the spirits stole her bra, and the Boone twins are trying to bribe a phantom miner with moonshine. The cemetery glows, the telegraph taps out tomorrow’s gossip, and the stagecoach drops riders off in the wrong century. The living and the dead aren’t fighting for peace in Whiskey Gulch—they’re fighting for last call.

Welcome to Whiskey Gulch: population unpredictable, logic optional, ghosts mandatory.

Jo McGraw thought life on her seven-generation ranch was already enough of a circus. Between Grandma Mavis (who can outdrink most breweries), the Boone twins (who argue about everything, including which one is actually straight), Peach Bellamy (bartender, trouble magnet, professional grudge-holder), Aggie Pruitt (armed with bourbon and a typewriter), and an army of dogs led by Booger and Maggie the Goldens, Jo figured she had reached her limit on chaos.

Whiskey Gulch was abandoned in 1899 after the gold dried up and the chili contest caught fire—literally. But the town isn’t empty. The saloon lights flicker on at midnight, the piano pounds out songs no one asked for, and the sheriff ghost still hands out tickets for “standing too sassy,” “boots too shiny,” and “public whistling without a license.” His deputies? They’ve tried to arrest Yorkies for “excessive squeaking” and fine Booger for “unlicensed tail wagging.”

Grandma Mavis refuses to pay a dime, Peach swears the ghosts stole her bra, and Aggie is thrilled that she finally has new material for her mystery novels. The Boone twins decide it’s a business opportunity: “Can’t be worse than rodeo season.” Meanwhile, the dogs are the only ones who take the hauntings seriously—and they’re losing the battle against ghost goats, phantom chickens, and a piano that won’t stop playing “Friends in Low Places.”

Inside the gulch you’ll meet:

• Madam Ophelia Devereaux, a saloon queen still running her cat house like it’s Saturday night.
• Sheriff Ezekiel “Zeke” Hollerbrand, determined to ticket anything that breathes (or barks).
• Virgil “Keys” McGraw, whose skeletal fingers insist on karaoke, especially 1980s power ballads.
• Widow Eliza Crane, a glowing tombstone flirt who thinks Wade Boone is her eternal fiancé.
• Morty Keene, undertaker ghost, who loves popping out of coffins mid-conversation.

• A haunted saloon where drinks spill straight through you.
• A cemetery with tombstones that glow brighter than your future.
• A gold mine that whispers back when you curse at it.
• Karaoke contests judged by coyotes.
• Chili cookoffs that literally set people on fire.
• A grandma who can outcuss, outdrink, and outwit the dead.
• Dogs who treat hauntings more seriously than humans do.