Six For Laramie

as by Rick Dalmas

A Black Horse Western from Hale, December 2009

Six of them came to Laramie that early summer: six gunfighters all hungry for money and not too fussy about how they earned it. They all had their reasons – greed was not a factor in every case.

Bannerman, toughest and fastest, had a special reason: one of the six had backshot a friend, and there was no charge for what he intended to do to that man. Even if it disrupted the plans for the main job for which he had been hired. And that would put him on the wrong end of the gun. Five guns.

I don’t think I’ve read any other BHW that has had its hero hired to commit a crime. Here we have Bannerman, and the other five of the title, hired to rob a train of a payroll and something else that will also be in the safe. That ‘something else’ is kept a mystery until near the end, so hooking the reader’s interest and ensuring they keep reading.

Bannerman is a well drawn character, as is Mariah – who hires the gunmen and sets up the robbery – and these two have some excellent dialogue exchanges in their many battles of wills. The other main characters are equally as engaging.

The book is very fast paced and full of action which all builds up well to the train robbery, that doesn’t go quite as planned. But are the books heroes successful in their mission? After all they are basically outlaws, so does bad win over good? My lips are sealed on this, you’ll have to read it yourself to find out, and I believe you’ll be just as entertained by the story as I was.

Six for Laramie was officially published on December 31st. Rick Dalmas is a new pseudonym for Keith Hetherington, and for fans of his work – like myself – you’ll be pleased to know he had two books published by Hale on December 31st, the other being Shoot, Run or Die! as by Jake Douglas.