Passing Through a Prairie Country: A Novel by Dennis E. Staples

Description

Casinos promise luck.
This one deals in something far more dangerous.

For decades, whispers have circled the Languille Lake reservation about a presence lurking within the Hidden Atlantis Lake Resort and Casino—a shadow known only as the sandman. He doesn’t just haunt the place. He feeds on it. On dreams. On spirits. On the fragile boundary between the living and the dead.

Marion Lafournier arrives looking for escape. Fresh off a breakup and drifting, the hum of slot machines and neon lights offers a temporary numbness—until he crosses paths with the sandman and barely makes it out.

Saved by his cousins Alana and Cherie—both deeply familiar with the casino’s darker truths—Marion is pulled into a reality he can’t ignore. Because this isn’t just a ghost story. It’s a war already in progress.

Elsewhere, Glenn Nielan, newly out and eager to document the land and its people, steps into the casino with a camera and curiosity—unaware he’s walking straight into something that does not want to be seen.

At the center of it all is the Bullhead clan: bound by ancestry, spirit, and responsibility. Alana, gifted with sevenfire sight, understands the full scale of the threat. Marion, with his rare ability to move between worlds, may be the key to stopping it.

But the sandman’s reach runs deeper than anyone imagined.

And once you start playing his game…
walking away may no longer be an option.

Passing Through a Prairie Country is a darkly funny, razor-edged thriller blending Indigenous storytelling, supernatural horror, and modern life. Haunting, sharp, and richly layered, it explores grief, identity, and the unseen forces—both spiritual and systemic—that shape the world we move through.

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Book Details
Author: Dennis E. Staples
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 1640097635