by Gary McCarthy
Dell, June 1979
Book one in the Derby Man series.
Book one in the Derby Man series.
Darby Buckingham is a big man; he’s also a top selling author of Westerns. But he’s had enough of fiction, wants to write about the real people of the West. So he travels from New York to Wyoming in search of Sheriff Cather.
Cather has settled a range war, thwarted four bank robberies, drawn against all the era’s legendary quick-draws. He is a real frontier legend and his story is begging to be told, as only Buckingham knows how. But Buckingham will find himself living the tale instead of writing it!
Gary McCarthy presents the reader with a different kind of hero in Darby Buckingham. A man, who is overweight, wears a suit and a Derby hat. His appearance makes him the butt of many jokes. Trouble is for those who pick on him he also knows how to look out for himself.
The story is well told and has lots of humour as well as violent action. Darby has a number of mishaps but he’s capable of laughing at himself, which is one of the reasons I found him so appealing. It was good to read about a hero that isn’t the usual handsome fast-draw artist.
I’ll definitely be hunting out the follow up books about the Derby Man. Well worth a look.
3 comments:
you've enticed me. I'm goona get this book. The cover's brilliant
I love this series -- Darby Buckingham is a wonderful character and I wish that they were still in print. I want to team him up with the characters from Wild Wild West.
I'm finally getting around to start reading this series. Hard to find the out-of-print books (although they are available through various online dealers). However, they are now available as eBooks, which makes 'em easy to access. Your review makes me want to read the series.
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