For centuries the harsh badlands of the west had played host to only the harshest and toughest of beings. John Skinner was one of them – a man as hardened as the mustangs he bred. Using bullets to thin out his herd, he ensured hat the fittest survived.
But now Skinner had a different use for his rifle. It was him against a thieving, murdering gang that held to ransom the woman he loved. They would kill her if he tried to wreck their plan: they would do worse if he didn’t.
Putting bullets into horses was an unpleasant necessity for Skinner. But when he got this gang in his sights, pulling the trigger was going to be a pleasure…
As far as I can tell, this is Fearl Parker’s first western, and like those that come after, it begins with a prologue subtitled The Making of the Land. These pages explain how the land came to be as it is in the story, in this case how a lake had been formed that eventually dried out and became a dusty harsh land where little water could be found. It is in this landscape that Skinner hunts his prey.
Parker is extremely good at describing the land and the struggles to survive in such a hostile place. It is easy for the reader to feel the unrelenting heat and become as parched as the characters looking for water. You’ll share their frustrations when discovering that the life-giving liquid isn’t where it is supposed to be. Over all this hangs the nerve-stretching fear of death from an unseen enemy.
The story is a straight-forward chase tale, a race against time. The characters are well-drawn and you’ll soon be wondering if Skinner will be able to free Beth. Skinner also befriends a young man on the run, who wants to turn his life around, return the money he stole from a bank due to a misunderstanding of his father’s words. A chance discovery seems like it could give him the opportunity to do just that.
There is plenty of hard-hitting violence. Sometimes death strikes so suddenly it’ll take your breath away. One such killing took me totally by surprise and I had to reread the paragraph to make sure it really was the person I thought it was that had died.
This is only the second Parker book I’ve read, and I’ve really enjoyed them both. I like the gritty descriptions of land and characters. The brutal action scenes and the unpredictability of the plot, which includes the uncertainty of who will be alive at the end. I’m just glad I have a few more Parker books on my shelves as I’m looking forward to reading more by this author.
Recently Fearl Parker has been putting his work out as ebooks, and has also made available some new novels.
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