Sundance #2

DEAD MAN’S CANYON

as by John Benteen

Leisure, 1972

Sundance, the professional fighting man of the plains and the Baron from the Austrian Court made a deal. For $35,000 the big man with the bronzed face and the yellow hair would take the nobleman into deadly Apache territory to search for Emperor Maximilian of Mexico’s priceless treasure of lost jewels.

Before it was over, Sundance would meet Cochise, Chief of the Chiricahuas, and, together with a luscious young woman, face his closest crapshoot with death. And a score of men’s bones would bleach on the floor of Dead Man’s Canyon.

Having read quite a few of the 43 books that make up this series, I always thought the earlier entries were the best, so I expected another good read from this, the 2nd of the Sundance books.

Benjamin L. Haas, writing as John Benteen, starts the book well with a tough battle with Indians, which is very quickly followed with a brutal fistfight between Sundance and an outlaw leader called Gannon. Unfortunately the book goes into a slump after this as the plot is outlined, this being the search for Maximilian’s priceless treasure. The jewels are said to be hidden deep in Apache territory and once Sundance meets up with the Apaches the book picks up in pace again and ends with some great action as Sundance and Cochise team up to take on Gannon and his gang.

Shame about the slump, otherwise not a bad read.