THE VULTURE

 

THE BADGE
Book 17 of 24
THE VULTURE
By Bill Reno
Cover art by Shannon Stirnweis
Bantam Books, June 1990

To a violent land, a frontier yet untamed, came a man who wore a badge of law and order. He faced the myriad dangers and paid the price in blood to become one of the most enduring heroic figures of the Old West.

Victorio “the Vulture” Condor is the vicious bandito who has stained the Pecos red with blood. Yet no one has felt the full force of his brutality…until now. As vultures circle hungrily over the bodies of his dead brothers, Victorio declares war on the Texas Rangers – and on Lieutenant Mark Gray, the man who strung them up. One by one, the Rangers will fall before his guns: but not the shrewd Lieutenant. For Gray is a hard man to kill, and as hunter turns to hunted, Victorio will find he’s an even harder man to escape.

The Badge books are about different lawmen, although a few do appear in more than one entry in the series. All the books can be read as stand-alone novels so there is no need to read them in order. 

Even though Lieutenant Mark Gray is the hero of this story the author spends as much time, if not more, telling the reader what Victorio is doing, painting a savage picture of this man and his gang. It seems that Gray and the Texas Rangers are no match for this bandit as the body count grows.

I would hazard a guess that the author, Lew A. Lacy writing as Bill Reno, had some fun coming up with all the different ways Victorio deals out death. The Vulture doesn’t want his targets to die quickly, he wants them to suffer for killing his brothers. Victorio takes great pleasure in sending the Ranger Captain Terrell Sears the badges of his dead men along with a black vulture feather. It’s not just Rangers who are marked to die, there’s a judge and a couple of lawmen too. 

The book doesn’t have a complicated plot, it is a straight-forward tale of revenge that is fairly brutal at times. From reading other books in this series, I couldn’t begin to guess how it would end as the author will kill off the main characters to add lasting impact to his tales. Would that happen in this one? It certainly seemed to be heading down that trail. 

I did feel the final confrontation was drawn out a bit too long, but the final scenes will definitely stay in my mind for a long time and provided a fitting end to this excellent story. For me, The Vulture is one of the best entries I’ve read in this series and I’m looking forward to reading book 18 soon.

RAILS INTO HELL

 

RAILS INTO HELL
A Faraday Novel: 6 
By Brent Towns 
Wolfpack Publishing, October 2025

The railroad’s arrival promised progress, but in Sagebrush Creek, it came riding on a tide of blood.

A surveyor lies dead, murdered to halt the iron rails’ advance. Matthew Faraday knows one man who can uncover the truth—former gunfighter Jack Quade. But Faraday’s reasons aren’t entirely about justice. Trouble’s brewing in the hills: a range war with Quade’s estranged father, Vince, at its heart.

Years ago, Vince Quade disavowed his son. Now Jack must face a father who wants nothing from him—least of all help. But with a killer on his trail and tensions ready to explode into open war, Jack has no choice but to fight on two fronts: mending a broken bond and stopping a murderer before Sagebrush Creek becomes a graveyard.

Will Jack Quade bring peace to a town on the brink—or will the railroad carry him straight into hell? 

I read the original six book Faraday series when they were first published at the end of the 1980’s. Wolfpack republished four of them, renumbered and in a slightly different order. Two brand new books have also been published carrying on with the number sequence from Wolfpack. All the Wolfpack books carry the authors real name on the cover whereas the original run saw them published under the pseudonym of William Grant. 

I’ve also read a number of westerns by Brent Towns, and like the original Faraday series, enjoyed them greatly.

Matthew Faraday is the head of the Faraday Security Service, a railroad detective agency. So far, each book features a different undercover agent and Faraday himself takes a background role. Brent Towns follows this premise perfectly and has created an engaging hero with a complicated past that will create additional problems for him to overcome. Some of the troubles he will face he knows about; others will take him by surprise. 

Each chapter is broken into a number of short scenes that follow different characters so I was left hanging on what each of them would do next and how it would affect others actions. The inclusion of some excellent twists and turns ensured I’d keep reading. The possibility of a range war merging with the mystery of who murdered the railroad surveyor was also a question I had. Were these two elements of the story connected in any way? 

The writing style is fluid, fast paced and gritty. If you like a lot of gunplay in your westerns then Towns’ will certainly keep you satisfied. Towns also springs some unexpected surprises on the reader too. 

All I can now hope is that Wolfpack Publishing decide to continue with this series and that Brent Towns gets to write another. 

American readers can get a copy here.

UK readers can get a copy here.

THE KILLERS FROM YELLOW ROCK

 

THE KILLERS FROM YELLOW ROCK
By Jeff Pintabona
Veritas Entertainment, September 2025

$25,000 in blood money. One mountain. No second chances.

Blood money has a way of calling every gunman for miles.

High atop Yellow Rock Mountain, notorious gunfighter Mort Totten sits like a vulture king, with a $25,000 bounty on his head. Nineteen men have tried their luck. Nineteen men never came back alive.

But the lure of fortune is stronger than fear. When young trail hand Jerry Dixon and his Apache partner Coyotero set their sights on Totten, they’re drawn into a deadly game of ambushes, betrayals, and gunsmoke. Soon, Dixon finds himself riding alongside the very outlaw he meant to kill—facing merciless bounty hunters, corrupt lawmen, desert ambushes, and savage killers who want the reward for themselves.

From dusty Nevada canyons to lawless frontier towns, The Killers from Yellow Rock explodes with blazing six-gun duels, knife fights, ambushes under desert stars, and the kind of larger-than-life characters that define the Western myth.

Although this is the second western from Jeff Pintabona it is the first I’ve read by him and what an entertaining read it turned out to be. 

The opening attempts on Totten’s life captured my imagination easily and once I found out that Dixon wasn’t really after the bounty but wanted Totten to help him take revenge on a man Totten used to partner the story really grabbed me and ensured I’d keep turning the pages.

Totten is an out-and-out killer. A man who will kill the opposition anyway he can with the least danger to himself. This put him at odds with Dixon who refuses to kill a man in cold blood. As they travel towards their target, Totten attempts to change Dixon’s mind whilst teaching him how to be quick with gun, knife and fist. There is plenty of trouble to face whilst on their journey which highlights some of the weaknesses Dixon has. 

Characterization is done well and I did notice that the reader never gets to share Totten’s thought process, which helps make him appear somewhat cold-hearted, but he occasionally acts in a way or says something that hints there is more to him than what we see at face-value. 

I don’t really want to reveal anything else about the plot as it would spoil the surprises the reader has coming. I did begin to wonder who of the main characters, if any, would be alive by the end.

The Killers from Yellow Rock is a tough, gritty read that is filled with hard-hitting action. Pacing is excellent as it builds towards its exciting final showdown that left me hoping for a sequel as I need to read more about the survivors. Recommended. 

American readers can get a copy here.

British readers can get a copy here.