Sharper's Quest

By Jay D. West

Hale, August 2013

Sharper Wade rides into Virginia City more by chance than intent. He’d heard about the Comstock Lode and the vast wealth in gold and silver that was being mined there, but Sharper’s needs are limited to having enough money to eat, feed his horse and buy ammunition.

He is in town no more than an hour when he witnesses a brutal attack on a defenceless girl and her grandfather by three cowboys and steps in to help, landing himself in jail accused of murder. But he had a witness who can exonerate him and Sharper needs to find the men responsible, or lose his life….

There are five previous Sharper Wade books but fans may well have given up reading a new story about him long ago as the last book, Hell Riders, came out in 2001. I haven’t read the whole series but did find those I have to be very entertaining, so I for one was pleased to see this book announced.

Events in Hell Riders do get a brief mention but you don’t have to have read that book (or any of the others) to enjoy this one.

Jay D. West writes at a fast pace, switches from character to character to show how changes to situations effect those people and their plans. The plot throws up a couple of neat twists and turns too. There’s plenty of action that is often described quite graphically.

On finishing this book I can only hope that Jay D. West doesn’t make us wait anywhere near as long before for Sharper Wade to hit the trail again. 

Blood Money

By D.D. Lang

Hale, July 2013

What made saloonkeeper Wilbur Enright so eager to get his hands on the keys to the bank’s safe, after the disappearance of the Sheriff, Clint West? With Luther Parry, the assistant bank manager, and his wife, Lucy, also missing, and three dangerous-looking strangers new in town, serious trouble threatens.

But one of the strangers, Dale Smith, is on the trail of the missing three, and the good people of Springfield are in for a long tough ride if peace is to be restored…

Murder, bank robbery, kidnapping, ambush, flash flood, gunfights, and more, all in the name of greed and ambition, keeps this story galloping forwards at a breathless pace. Most of the characters caught up in the various dangerous situations are unaware of other deadly events involving friends, those they are trying to rob, or have killed. All trails are on a collision course that brings everything to a violent conclusion.

The story throws many questions at its well-drawn characters, switching between them more or less scene by scene, chapter by chapter. As the plot becomes more involved you’ll find yourself wondering who is going to come out victorious…even the three strangers, planning a crime of their own, will have you hoping they survive.

This is the first book by D.D. Lang I’ve read, although I have read one other by the same author writing under one of his other pseudonyms. It also seems this author dropped out of sight for a number of years, and on the strength of this book, and the previous one I’ve read, this is a very welcome return, and looking through Hale’s future publications it seems there are more of this authors books to come, something I am very much looking forward to.

Sharper #3

ANGEL OF DEATH: SHARPER 
as by Jay D. West

A Black Horse Western from Hale, 1996

Riding into Gainsville, drifter, gunman and bounty hunter Sharper Wade is warned to move on. But if there’s one-thing Sharper dislikes, it’s being told what to do, so he decides to stick around and find out what the problem is.

Dirk Blanchard owns Ninety percent of Gainsville, but that isn’t enough for him, he has to have the other ten percent, as well as the farmsteads in the next valley, and he’ll stop at nothing to achieve his ambition. The townsfolk are scared of Blanchard and the small army of men he uses to terrorize them. Only one man is not afraid – Sharper Wade.

Although this is the third book in the Sharper series, and there’s the odd reference to the previous books, this should not spoil the readers’ enjoyment of this chapter in the life of Sharper Wade.

The book opens with a very gruesome discovery that is the real reason that Sharper decides to stick around. There’s plenty of action, mostly described in all its brutal and bloody glory.

Jay D. West writes a fast paced story that moves from character to character often leaving them in dangerous situations that will challenge you to put the book down before you find out what happens to them. And as you think you’ve worked out how the book will turn out West throws a spanner in the works by introducing another character.

If you like fast and furious savage westerns then this book is worth taking the time to track down.

Me? I’m going to be hunting for the others in the series.