Evil rides the borderlands—and it knows your name.
Haunted by a witch only he can see, a traumatized Comanche-Mexican border agent joins an elderly rancher who shelters trafficked girls to stop ritual murders tied to Palo Mayombe, facing cartel brutality, generational trauma, and spiritual warfare in the violent, unforgiving borderlands of West Texas.
Evil rides the borderlands—and it knows your name.
Nocona Ketemoczy, a battle-scarred Marine turned border agent, is barely holding his life together when girls start disappearing from the scrub and river crossings of West Texas. Their bodies—when they’re found—bear the unmistakable signature of ritual killings tied to Palo Mayombe, an African-Cuban religion twisted here into a weapon of terror. Locals whisper about an old woman with cataract eyes and a rotted smile: the Witch of Sonora, a presence that has stalked Nocona’s nightmares since he was a boy and now walks the caliche roads in broad daylight.
Drawn into the case is Hannah Durand, an eighty-something ranch widow who runs Casa de Katia, a hard-scrabble safe house for trafficked girls hidden in the hills outside Rocksprings. When a half-starved migrant named Ava arrives with a black cauldron and bones inked down her arm, Hannah recognizes a mark she’s only ever seen in forbidden images on the dark corners of the internet. She knows at once: whatever is hunting her girls has stepped onto her land.
As a historic Halloween flood slams the Hill Country, Nocona is forced to confront two enemies at once—the cartel lieutenant building a torture-and-trafficking hub along the Rio Grande, and the generational trauma that has turned his Comanche and Mexican blood into a tinderbox for the Witch’s whispers. His one true ally is Jo McKenney, a razor-sharp former Army Ranger and Del Rio border agent whose own moral injuries from Afghanistan mirror his own. When Jo goes missing while surveilling a remote ranch near Seminole Canyon, Nocona realizes he may be too late—for the girls, for Hannah, and for the woman he’s finally allowed himself to love.
From haunted canyons and flash-flooded rivers to a shipping container “temple” lined with skulls, Witch of Sonora is a visceral blend of crime, supernatural suspense, and spiritual warfare, steeped in the stark beauty and violence of the Texas borderlands. This novel asks a single searing question: when evil wears both human and supernatural faces, what will you sacrifice to save the ones who can’t save themselves?
Category: Fiction
Publication Date: September 29, 2026
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-965766-71-2
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-965766-72-9
List price: $21.95
Category: Thriller/Suspense
Pages: 174
Trim size: 5.5 x 8.5
Publication date: September 29, 2026
Jerry Wayne Longmire Jr., host of The Reckon Yard Podcast and author of The Reckon Yard.“Johnnie Bernhard reminds us that the battle between good and evil runs straight through the human heart and the Texas soil beneath it. The Witch of Sonora is a powerful story that lingers long after the final page.”
Michael Farris Smith, author of Lay Your Armor Down and Desperation Road“Johnnie Bernhard steps into a gritty, hardscrabble, and unforgiving world in The Witch of Sonora, but she does it with the grace and dignity of a seasoned writer who knows how to traverse through the gray. What is right and what is wrong? It’s a balance of law, of spirit, of life in a border town where bullets fly and secrets haunt. A heartfelt and hard hitting novel.”
James R. Dennis, poet, novelist, and author of Songs of Seven“In The Witch of Sonora, Johnnie Bernard takes us back to Central Texas, to a place and to characters we've come to know and respect in her last novel. We also meet, however, new characters who must make their way in this harsh landscape, a harsh setting where people are reduced to property, where ghosts and monsters roam freely, and where a moment's inattention can precipitate disaster. In the final analysis, however, this is a love story: a story about the love of this land, these people, and about how we recover our hearts after trauma. This is the work of a gifted storyteller, drawing us in carefully, warmly, and reverently.”
Jerry Wayne Longmire Jr., host of The Reckon Yard Podcast and author of The Reckon Yard.“Johnnie Bernhard reminds us that the battle between good and evil runs straight through the human heart and the Texas soil beneath it. The Witch of Sonora is a powerful story that lingers long after the final page.”
Michael Farris Smith, author of Lay Your Armor Down and Desperation Road“Johnnie Bernhard steps into a gritty, hardscrabble, and unforgiving world in The Witch of Sonora, but she does it with the grace and dignity of a seasoned writer who knows how to traverse through the gray. What is right and what is wrong? It’s a balance of law, of spirit, of life in a border town where bullets fly and secrets haunt. A heartfelt and hard hitting novel.”
James R. Dennis, poet, novelist, and author of Songs of Seven“In The Witch of Sonora, Johnnie Bernard takes us back to Central Texas, to a place and to characters we've come to know and respect in her last novel. We also meet, however, new characters who must make their way in this harsh landscape, a harsh setting where people are reduced to property, where ghosts and monsters roam freely, and where a moment's inattention can precipitate disaster. In the final analysis, however, this is a love story: a story about the love of this land, these people, and about how we recover our hearts after trauma. This is the work of a gifted storyteller, drawing us in carefully, warmly, and reverently.”
Jeffrey Blount, author of Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way“Johnnie Bernhard is a literary genius, and her brilliance is on full display in her earthy, earnest and soul deep new novel, The Witch of Sonora. As in her previous novels, Bernhard places her readers in the crucially truthful and deeply reflective moments of life. The Witch of Sonora is a story of love, human struggle, tragedy and serious personal deliberation. In this beautiful book, Bernhard provides a real mirror for society that allows us to feel the raw and touching power that can only be found in the most fundamental moments of human connection.”
George Masters, Writer, United States Marine Corps, Corporal“Johnnie Bernhard can write. Marine combat veteran Nocoma, "wanderer" in his native tongue, returns from a tour of duty in Afghanistan and joins the Texas Border Patrol. When buried murder victims become unearthed, disappeared women start showing up, and a deadly criminal conspiracy is exposed, Nocoma has his work cut out for him, but once a Marine, always a Marine. Ms. Bernhard knows the territory, and her West Texas landscape of terror, beauty, witches, and love will stay with you for a long time.”
Kathleen M. Rodgers, author of The Llano County Mermaid Club“A chilling and eye-opening read, Johnnie Bernhard’s fifth novel, Witch of Sonora, keeps you clinging to each page as you race through emotionally charged chapters hoping against hope that good will conquer evil and stop human traffickers once and for all. In taut, first-person narratives that feel deeply vulnerable yet zip along at breakneck speed, Bernhard is a master at introducing each of her main characters one at a time before shifting to the next scene. Part thriller part crime mystery with a dash of romance and mysticism, Witch of Sonora can be read as a standalone or as a sequel to Hannah and Ariela. Former combat Marine turned Border Patrol Agent, Nocona Ketemoczy, first saw the Witch of Sonora when he was a young boy. Octogenarian and rancher Hannah Durand relies on her Catholic faith as she runs a shelter for girls and young women who’ve escaped the cruel clutches of human trafficking. Both Nocona and Hannah know evil when they see it, especially when they are trying to protect those they care about. Justice comes in many forms. Shame on me for yelping with joy the first time justice is served in a harrowing scene near the end of the novel.”
Kathy Rampsburger, award-winning author of The Shores of Our Souls and A Thousand Flying Things“Award-winning traditional author Johnnie Bernhard’s The Witch of Sonora is a haunting novel that will keep you awake in thought and prayer. Spare yet poignant, it carries the reader into the depths of terror as a ghoulish witch prowls through the Texas borderlands. Light battles darkness as Bernhard’s characters reveal their troubled stories—each one confronting the jagged line between sanity and madness, reality and the supernatural. Set against the geography, history, and lore of Bernhard’s native Texas, this story of contrasts follows a diverse cast searching for a murderer one stormy Halloween night around a flooded ranch meant to be a sanctuary. Will the witch prevail? Only if the soul who she's followed there can heal and find redemption.”
Alexander Blevens, William Faulkner Literary award-winning author of Arkansas Black"South-of-the-border mysticism meets pure homegrown evil on the wide-open, hard-scrapple landscape of West Texas. With raw, lyrical intensity, Johnnie Bernhard exposes the dark side of human trafficking mixed with ruthless cartels and the ghoulish rituals of a Caribbean cult. Organically developed characters drive the ever-intensifying plot to an inevitable crescendo, transfixing the reader in a supernatural aura well past the last page. The Witch of Sonora is a must read."
Renea Winchester, award-winning author of The Mountains Remember"Written with a deep respect for the Texas country and the people who are tied to this land, Johnnie Bernhard transports readers with a gripping tale of redemption and revelation, where the balance of good versus evil hangs by a tattered thread. The Witch of Sonora explores the complexities of belief, the nature of fear, the hope of healing, and the eternal struggle between light and darkness."
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