Six-Gun Nemesis

By Colin Bainbridge

Hale, August 2012

In Chaparral Bend a gallows is being raised for youngster Ty Garland, accused of bank robbery. But is he really guilty? His old ma claims he is innocent, and town tamer, Crossdraw Kitchenbrand, is inclined to believe her, especially as the notorious gunman Angel Addison and his gang, the Yuma Boys, seem to be involved.

Crossdraw’s search for answers brings him up against big ranch-owner Landon Clovis and leads him to the outlaw roost of Addisonville. He can count on the support of the old woman and a girl he has rescued, but will that be enough to succeed against overwhelming odds? Will his six-guns finally bring justice?

This is Colin Bainbridge’s fifth Black Horse Western and the third I have read.

The story starts well with Kitchenbrand discovering a tar-and-feathered old lady. Who could do such a thing to an elderly woman and why? Her tale exposes more questions than answers and Kitchenbrand finds himself involved in attempting to free Ty Garland, but there are people who don’t want that to happen.

The book builds in intrigue and suspense, has plenty of action and well-drawn, strong characters of both sexes. And who will be able to forget Reba (a crow)? 

The reason for killing or saving Ty Garland isn’t easy to work out and kept me glued to the story. Everything comes to a satisfactory end and I was left with a feeling of being thoroughly entertained and looking forward to reading another of Colin Bainbridge’s books. 

Six-Gun Nemesis has an official release date of August 31st, but is available now.

Beyond Redemption

By I.J. Parnham

Hale, August 2012

As a child Jeff Dale witnessed the terrible aftermath of an atrocity. Elmer Drake killed three members of a family and when the surviving girl Cynthia went missing, Jeff vowed that one day he’d find her, no matter how long it took.

Ten years later. After finding a clue about Cynthia’s fate, Jeff becomes a bounty hunter and follows the trail to the town of Redemption. And in Redemption stalks a gunslinger who carries a gun in one hand and a cross in the other. A man with a rope-burn around his neck, called Elmer Drake….

With plenty of questions hanging over the motives of the excellent cast of characters this story revolves around, the fast moving plot easily sweeps up the reader making this a difficult book to put down. Who is killing gold miners? Is Cynthia still alive? Can Jeff Dale trust an outlaw? Does Sister Angelica’s hospital have any part to play? What is Elmer Drake planning and what is the meaning of the cross he carries?

Like other Ian Parnham books I’ve read this one has a few twists and turns to surprise the reader and has plenty of exciting action that will satisfy readers who like lots of gunplay in their westerns. Even though the identity of one of the characters is fairly easy to work out the outcome of Jeff’s meeting this person is in no way predictable and how it concludes provided a satisfying and realistic ending for me.

So, once more, Ian Parnham leaves me looking forward to his next book, Devine, which is listed for a December release.

Devil's Creek Massacre

THE PECOS KID #5

By Jack Bodine

Harper, March 1994

Cutthroat Comancheros, wandering banditos, the Mexican Army, the Fourth Cavalry – and Miss Vanessa Fontaine – all want Duane Braddock, who has the fastest gun in the West and much more than a price on his head. But it is the Apaches who leave him for dead in the Coahuilian Desert.

Found by a ragtag outlaw band led by an ex-Confederate soldier, Braddock is brought back to the land of the living. By the time he is well enough to run, a greedy plan to seize half-a-million dollars of Army payroll is in place. The dynamite is set, the fuse is lit, and the Pecos Kid has his pick: kill or die.

The book begins moments before Braddock finds himself fighting for his life against a small band of Apaches in a gripping scene that leaves the Pecos Kid barely alive. A good portion of the story then deals with Braddock’s recovery. During this time Jack Bodine introduces his cast of excellent characters, such as outlaw leader Captain Cochrane and his woman Juanita Torregrosa, Dr. Montgomery and the crazy killer Johnny Pinto, all of who will cause problems for Braddock as the tale evolves.

Jack Bodine switches between characters chapter by chapter, following all their thoughts and schemes. By far the largest number of chapters not about Duane Braddock continue the story of Vanessa Fontaine – Duanne and Vanessa had been lovers (see previous books). Newly widowed Vanessa now searches for happiness but still can’t get Duane out of her mind so she sets out to find The Pecos Kid, her trail putting her into all kinds of dangerous situations.

Braddock must struggle to keep true to his beliefs and tries to get out of having to take part in the payroll robbery. He also has his hands full of trouble in the form of Johnny Pinto, this madman forcing Braddock into an extremely well written duel.

Does Vanessa find The Pecos Kid? Does Braddock manage to avoid being part of the robbery? Does he get away from the outlaws? All I will say is the book gallops forward to its brutal final showdown that sees a few loose threads left dangling so they can be continued in the next book in the series. A book I shall be reading very soon. 

Jack Bodine is a pseudonym used by Len Levinson, and he’s recently put all the Pecos Kid books out as ebooks under his own name, along with his other excellent western series The Apache Wars Saga that were originally published as by Frank Burleson.

 

Shadow of Guilt

By Mark Bannerman

Hale, August 2012

It starts out as a simple mission to trace his kid brother, but Brad Caulderfield rides into a heap of trouble when he kills the brother of Marshal Seth Blevins.

Charged with murder and pursued by the embittered lawman, Brad has no alternative but to run for his life. He faces further complications from Stella Goodnight who is out for blood when he fails to return her affections. When his brother reappears bearing bitter resentments from the past, he is looking headlong into the face of his nemesis….

This is the first Black Horse Western from Mark Bannerman for some time, his last appeared in 2007.

Mark Bannerman throws plenty of problems at his hero, Brad Caulderfield, such as finding his brother, Lanny, who has sworn to kill both Brad and their father. There are posses hunting them both too. A neighbouring father is also looking for vengeance and is threatening to throw the Caulderfield’s off their rented land if Lanny isn’t returned to pay for his crimes. Then there’s Stella and her baggage that also sees more people wanting to kill Brad. A plague of grasshoppers have an important part to play in the fast moving plot too.

When we first meet Brad he’s having problems with snakes, a confrontation that sees him being bitten, this gives the author the opportunity to add an interesting scene involving one of the new hypodermic syringes.

As the story unfolds it soon becomes clear that the reader can’t second guess on who will be alive at the end, and for those who are the final scenes are played out in a courtroom.

Once again Mark Bannerman has come up with a very entertaining read that has left me looking forward to reading another of his books very soon.

Mark Bannerman is a pseudonym used by Anthony Lewing and you can find an interview I did with him here.

Shadow of Guilt is officially released on August 31st but is available now from the usual Internet book stores.

Blind Man's Bluff

THE TRAILSMAN #370

By Jon Sharpe

Signet, August 2012

The Chiricahua Mountains are full of dangers – and the most terrifying is Apache warrior Red Dog. So when Skye Fargo comes across him, it’s no surprise he’s in the middle of torturing a prospector. Fargo rescues the man, but earns the hatred of Red Dog in the process. And with a slew of greedy gold hunters aiming to start a bloodbath, the Trailsman is going to have to grow eyes in the back of his head to survive….

Opening with a gruesome scene of torture this Trailsman adventure never lets up with action thereafter. Jon Sharpe brings together a terrific cast of characters who when not trying to kill each other are having doubts about who they can trust and whether they are being told the whole truth about a search for gold. All these questions kept me glued to the pages as I was instantly hooked with the need to find out just what was going on.

Being a Trailsman book there isn’t a shortage of women wanting to bed Fargo, but for me the most memorable woman is the one who wants nothing more but to blow a hole through his skull. In fact she is probably my favourite character that Fargo comes into contact with this time.

There are plenty of cliff-hanger chapter, and scene, endings that make the book difficult to put down before discovering what happens next, and the pacing is superb. Descriptions are brief but offer more than enough detail to give the reader a good idea as to the landscape this story is played out in. Violence erupts regularly and is often quite brutally described.

With Jon Sharpe this time around being David Robbins you can expect some cracking dialogue laced with sarcasm and humour, along with some neat twists-to-the-tale.

Blind Man’s Bluff proved to be a very enjoyable read that left me eager for next months offering California Killers.

Blood on the Land

By Paul Bedford

Hale, August 2012

In 1844, young British Army officer, Thomas Collins, is sent to the fledgling Republic of Texas. His mission: to meet the legendary President Sam Houston to negotiate terms for the British Empire’s involvement in his country.

What Thomas finds is a world of subterfuge and danger. The republic is scourged by an implacable and deadly enemy, the Comanche Nation, for whom rape, pillage and bloody warfare is a way of life. His desperate fight for survival brings him into contact with Captain John Coffee Hays, and his effective Texas Rangers, and ends in a lethal climax aboard a steamboat on the unpredictable Brazos River.

This first Black Horse Western from Paul Bedford is unusual in both the time period the story is set in and the fact that the story is told in the first person. The book is also much longer than the majority of BHW due to more words per line and more lines per page. Chapters also begin a few lines after the previous one ends rather than starting on a new page.

Paul Bedford's prose is very readable and his story is action-packed, containing many fights with the Comanche. Thomas Collins is a hero out of depth as he struggles to understand this new country and its people. He soon begins to have doubts about his mission and questions why he seems to be the target for assassination and who is behind these attempts. Can he even trust the man who saved his life, Bannock, a man who claims to be a Texas Ranger, one whom others have never heard of?

The fights often last a number of pages. They are brutal and often graphic in description. Great to see mention of the amounts of powder smoke emerging from the guns that obscure vision, making it difficult for the triggerman to see if they’ve downed a target. 

The story is well plotted and moves forward swiftly, its many questions serving to hold the readers attention. Finding a lone female survivor of a ruthless attack on her family’s cabin adds further complications in the form of kidnap and emotional turmoil as Thomas wonders if he’s falling in love with her. Can these feelings be allowed to get in the way of his mission?

I found Paul Bedford’s book to be an excellent read and was left hoping it won’t be too long before another comes out. Blood on the Land has an official release date of August 31st but is available now.

Rattlesnake Valley

THE LONER #5

By J.A. Johnstone

Pinnacle, April 2010

They came from the sea: a former ship captain named Owen Bird who inherited a Texas ranch from his brother… A former pirate named “Black Terrance” Malone, who has arrived in the once peaceful Rattlesnake Valley with a crew of sea dogs to do his dirty work. And dirty work it will be, as Black Terrance begins a campaign of thieving and threatening, even targeting Bird’s beautiful young niece. Into this storm rides the Loner – Conrad Morgan, son of legendary gunfighter Frank Morgan. The Loner sees what no one else does: a war born on the high seas and a third party is bidding his time – waiting to strike a death blow on solid, bloody ground…

Having the two sides come from a background of sailors and pirates, gives this book an unusual and welcome slant to what at first seems to be the classic range war plot. But it isn’t long before it’s discovered that there is much more at stake here, that a range war is how it seems only on the surface.

The author grabs the reader’s attention with great characters, not least Bird’s niece Diana and saloon owner Sophia, women who could find a way into The Loner’s heart.

The pace of the story is excellent, powering along through exciting gunplay, a sword fight and other tense scenes. Mentioned in the blurb is a third party and the author keeps the identity of this person a secret until they are ready to reveal all, this includes the reason they are interested in the fight in Rattlesnake Valley – and this was something I couldn’t have guessed at so came as a surprise that added another twist to the tale.

As one would hope the final showdown ties up all the loose ends and offers a new way of life for Conrad Morgan, a life with one of the lead women of the story. Does he choose to stay or ride on? That’s a question I’m not going to answer, just say I’m sure most western fans will really enjoy reading this book to find out and by the end feel as thoroughly entertained as I did.