As by Hank J. KirbyA Black Horse Western from Hale, August 2009
You could call them ‘blood brothers’: they had shed plenty of their own blood during the savage battles of the War. And it had mingled more than once.
Afterwards, they rode together, getting into and out of scrapes, watching each other’s back, sidekicks and friends. Then that old enemy and infamous disrupter struck gold. Lots of it. Already tainted with blood.
The only way it could be settled was over blazing guns.
This book gallops forwards at a pace that’ll take your breath away. Hank J. Kirby (author Keith Hetherington) grabs the readers’ attention from the very beginning with a failed stagecoach robbery – or was this what was intended? From then on he weaves a trail laced with the mystery of missing gold that it’s said is protected by a dragon. A dragon? That was more than enough to keep me reading, hooked in finding out just what this dragon was.
The story is filled with well-described gunfights and fistfights, an exciting prison escape, betrayal, and greed. The explanation of what the dragon is was beautifully told and painted a very vivid image in my mind, this dragon also providing a nail biting and tense finale.
I found Dragonfire Trail to be such a good read that I read it in one sitting, didn’t intend to but the authors writing style just made the book so easy to read that I’d reached the end almost before I realised it. For me, Keith Hetherington, has written a book that’ll definitely have me on the lookout for more of his work.
Dragonfire Trail has an official release date of August 31st but is available now, and I’d recommend putting your order in as soon as possible before it sells out.
You shouldn't have to look too far, Steve! Keith Hetherington has been writing westerns since the 1950s, starting with publishers like Cleveland in his native Australia. His other BHW pen-names since 1995 have been Jake Douglas, Tyler Hatch, Clayton Nash and Rick Dalmas. At times, he has had new books published by Hale at the rate of one a month -- sometimes two! It's always been a complete mystery to me why such a talented and prolific western writer is not listed among the masters of the genre. Maybe those multiple identities and the marketing method have something to do with it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he's not so well known as most of his work has been published in Australia and the UK rather than America?
ReplyDeleteI've just checked my BHW collection and I have a couple of other books by KH, reckon I'll have to dig them out soon.