Thursday 7 July 2022

THE OUTCAST


THE BADGE
Number 13 of 24
By Bill Reno
Cover art by Shannon Stirnweis
Bantam Books, October 1989

Long Shadow. The Cheyenne called him a traitor for saving a white man’s life and banished him from his people forever. Now, the man he rescued, Marshal Boyd Dollar, calls him “son,” the townspeople of Cheyenne Crossing call him deputy marshal, and one disgruntled rancher calls him dead. Swift with his fists and lightning fast with a revolver, Long Shadow stands for law and order. But when one of the most feared man-killers in the West puts the deputy in his gunsights, Long Shadow will fight hard and mean to survive.

The Badge books are a series of standalone novels united by the fact that the lead character wears a badge of some kind, so you don’t have to read the books in order. 

This story takes place over a number of years and begins with the funeral of Long Shadow’s mother. Events of that day see the fourteen-year-old nearly being hung as a horse thief, before he saves the life of Marshal Dollar which sees him banished from his tribe…and having to face never seeing the girl, April Dawn, he has promised himself to, again. April Dawn is as equally heartbroken as he is. 

Finding a missing white girl, Sally Easton, and returning her to Cheyenne Crossing leads to Long Shadow being adopted by Boyd Dollar. Sally falls head-over-heels in love with Long Shadow, yet he cannot return the feelings as he believes he will be reunited with April Dawn one day. There are people in town who aren’t ready to accept a Cheyenne living with them, and the hatred gets stronger when he becomes a lawman and plots are put into motion to get rid of him, permanently.

As well as being an action western, this is also a love story and for me it’s the latter that made this book so readable as I had to find out who Long Shadow would end up with, if indeed he did. The reported death of April Dawn opens up the possibility of marriage to Sally, but April Dawn isn’t dead. Will she track down Long Shadow before he marries? If she does will Long Shadow choose April Dawn or Sally? During the affairs of the heart, there is lots of gunplay as Long Shadow has to prove himself worthy of wearing a badge against bullies and outlaws in a number of exciting shootouts.

One thing I like about this author’s work, is that you can never be sure how his stories will conclude, and that includes predicting who will still be alive at the end, lead characters or not or whether there will be a happy ending for anyone. 

Bill Reno is a pseudonym used by Lew A. Lacy and I have yet to read a book by him that I haven’t enjoyed, and his stories always leave me keen to read another one as soon as I can. 

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