The lion’s share of the plot revolves around a sorrowful being, Cole McGee, once a Texas Ranger, who is kept from the fires of hell by the promise to round up escaped souls for Satan. In return, he expects a chance to be with his lost love Rose again, even though his employers are known throughout literature for the dubious nature of their deals. He sees no other choice in the matter.

The narration begins not with the focus of the story, but with Becky, a bystander who is helpless to prevent her friends from being brutally slaughtered by escaped souls looking for flesh to inhabit. Once Cole appears to round up those souls and untie her, he snatches the spotlight; Becky fades into the background, her only lasting significance being the movement into a description of Rose due to Becky’s resemblance.

Cole rides a demon which resembles a horse; to me, this somewhat harkens back to the original Ghost Rider of the comic book world, who rode on a horse as ghostly as himself, but this ranger’s ride has otherworldly tracking capabilities. The demon-horse’s head can also withstand being removed from the rest of the body and mounted on other frames, such as a motorcycle; the resemblance to Cage’s cinematic Ghost Rider is closer here, though the rider remains more zombie-cowboy than biker. This leads to the bizarre visual on the cover, inspired by a strange horse-headed motorcycle Brom recalls seeing on a honeymoon; Cole is Brom’s imagined ideal rider for such a vehicle.

Before long, the aforementioned disembodied demon head is mounted on the hood of a car and continues to function, earning high marks for versatility.

Cole, his rides and his job are not the only things reminiscent of Ghost Rider, here; the plot arc, which culminates in him turning against his employer and doing things his own way, seems familiar. However, this formula recurs because it is effective. Amidst sometimes stereotypical south-western characters and low-brow dialogue, Brom also has some decent twists to throw our way, such as the rider’s morally ambiguous quarry; instead of giving us a super-evil force less restrained than Satan or simply in the wrong place and needing to return home, the rider chases a disenfranchised god whose plot is to destroy himself to spite those who would eternally torture him.

Brom’s illustrations leave little to complain about. They are not stunning enough that I could comfortably say the words merely filled the gaps between illustrations, but they are finely detailed and apropos of the often disturbing visuals generated in the narrative; there are no disagreements between the two.

It is difficult to say whether I would have purchased this if it were not offered to me for review, as The Devil’s Rose is not how I would usually pass the time. When the quality of the illustrations and novelty of the plot twists are fairly weighed, however, I expect Brom’s existing fans to appreciate this work. For a story inspired entirely by the glimpse of a weird looking motorcycle, I gladly concede that it rocks. People not interested in gory magic rituals, demons, morally ambiguous characters or debates on the fairness of damnation as a system might want to turn this one down.