Wednesday 31 December 2008

A Man Called Savage

by Sydney J. Bounds
A Black Horse Western from Hale, 2000

An agent hired by Allan Pinkerton, head of the famous Pinkerton Agency, would quickly gain the respect of any law-breaker. But had the great detective made a mistake with the baby-faced young killer he’d scraped off the New York waterfront? Savage was the man’s name. His task was to break up the two gangs who had been terrorizing the south-west. He was seemingly armed with just a shotgun but it was his concealed knife you had to watch...

This book moves along at the pace of a galloping horse. Savage comes across as a self-confident, arrogant kid. A kid who favours his knife as a weapon. A kid who has to learn fast and move fast if he wants to stay alive.

The writing style is easy to read and the twists and turns of the plot draw you in as double-cross follows double-cross. The action is brutal and bloody and the characters well drawn. There’s also a death at the hands of an un-named killer to add an extra element of mystery to the plot.

My first book by this author, and hopefully not my last.

A Man Called Savage is the first in a series.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

All Syd's books are worth hunting down, Steve, including the Savage westerns, written when he was in his eighties. More can be read about him at www.blackhorsewesterns.com/bhe5
in the article on crime fiction crossovers and in the obituary, Farewell to a Small Giant.
Keith

Steve M said...

Hi Keith, it'd seems I only have one other book by Syd - written under one of his psedonyms - in my collection, but I'll definately be keeping my eye out for more.