In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson
Shortlisted for the 2017 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel; Runner-up for Best Novel in This Is Horror awards 2017. One night in 1980, a man becomes a monster. Travis Stillwell spends his nights searching out women in honky-tonk bars on the back roads of Texas. What he does with them doesn't make him proud: it just quiets the demons for a little while. But when he crosses paths with one particular mysterious pale-skinned girl, he wakes up weak and bloodied, with no memory of the night before. Finding refuge at a small motel, Travis develops feelings for the owner, Annabelle, but at night he fights a horrible transformation and his need to feed. Half a state away, a grizzled Texas Ranger is hunting Travis for his past misdeeds, but what he finds will lead him to a revelation far more monstrous. A man of the law, he'll have to decide how far into the darkness he'll go for the sake of justice.