Thursday 18 September 2014

Burning Bullets

THE TRAILSMAN #394
By Jon Sharpe
Signet, August 2014

1861, the Flathead Lake country – where a tinderbox of hate ignited an inferno of violence.

Fargo is guiding a squad of horse troopers to Flathead country to check on homesteaders, when he comes across a pack of vicious varmints up from Texas causing no end of terror for the settlers. And there’s only one man who can take on the troublemakers: the Trailsman.

Taking on a bunch of killers is the least of Fargo’s problems in this extremely fast moving tale. The Trailsman has to deal with a love-struck young woman who has set her mind on marrying him! Something Fargo dreads. How he tackles this situation tests his patience and makes for some excellent reading that often had me grinning.

As well as terrific dialogue, the action scenes are breath-taking, especially those during the latter part of the book when a far greater danger than marriage or savage killers threatens all: fire.

Jon Sharpe, in this case David Robbins writing behind the pseudonym, really does excel in his descriptions of the frantic attempts of man and animal to escape the all-consuming flames. The superb cover painting gives you some idea of the situations Fargo finds himself in.

Does everyone escape the forest fire? Does Fargo manage to talk his way out of marriage without hurting anyone’s feelings? Grab yourself a copy of this book and I’m sure you’ll be as thoroughly entertained as I was finding out the answers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Steve,
Thank you, yet again, for your kind review. I lived in that part of the country for a year and a half, decades ago, and a few of the fire scenes were from actual experience.
All the best.
David