as by Clayton NashA Black Horse Western from Hale, May 2009
After seven years married to Steve Bannister, Linda discovered to her horror that she really didn’t know her husband at all. Settled in a good town with a suitable lifestyle, she was now faced with a sudden move. It could be in the middle of the night – or the middle of a meal – such was the threat of danger.
Steve’s past was catching up with him. And the only way it could be stopped was with a smoking gun.
Once again Clayton Nash (real name Keith Hetherington) has written a very fast moving story that proves to be very difficult to put down. It’s filled with fascinating characters on both sides of the law and you have to wonder how Bannister can possibly protect his family from the heavy odds stacked against him.
The first thing Bannister has to do is get his wife and daughter hidden away safely and then he can take the fight to his enemy, using hit and run tactics that end in an explosive, nail-biting climax.
Hetherington packs a lot into this short book, gunfights, murder, savage beatings, rape, kidnap, and an exciting chase of a train, and more. He even manages to include mention of one of his other characters, Bronco Madigan – who appears in books under two of Hetherington’s pseudonyms, Clayton Nash and Hank J. Kirby – and these brief mentions have me eager to hunt down some of these books to find out more about the missing lawman Madigan.
If you like books filled with well described action and excellent dialogue then I suggest you buy a copy of this now before it sells out. Bad Day in Babylon was officially published on May 29th.
3 comments:
That's it. Game over. Best Western name in the history of the universe goes to: Bronco Madigan. Wow! What a name!
This book sounds really good, too. Have you seen David Cronenberg's A History of Violence? Your description of the book's plot reminded me of that a bit—guy's past catching up with him and affecting his family.
I'll have to see if I can pick this one up sometime. Sounds really good!
Keith H had an interesting story to tell me about the title of this one. "Babylon" features in his mailing address.
In his own words:
"When I said after a bad day of hassles that Bad Day At Black Rock had nothing on MY day, Rick [Keith H's son] came back with - 'Wrong, Dad, it's A Bad Day at Babylon.' Which I thought had a decent sort of ring to it and swiped for the title. He still reminds me it was he who gave me Dead Where You Stand'."
And Chris, there's more about Madigan and Keith Hetherington in the current Black Horse Extra (www.blackhorsewesterns.com) and at the same site's earlier editions, notably Dec. '06, June '08 and March '09.
One of the unsung greats!
Gotta agree Chris, Bronco Madigan is a wonderful name.
Great story Keith.
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