Rogue Lawman #5

BORDER SNAKES

By Peter Brandvold

Berkley, January 2010

This time it’s Hawk who’s been tracked down. The same governors who had a death warrant on Hawk’s head now desperately need his help to end the bloody carnage sweeping the Southwest…

A gang of merciless Apaches, along with a contrabandista and turncoat called Wilbur “Knife-Hand” Monjosa, is on the loose. Losing his hand to a Mojave ax, Monjosa replaced the bloody stump with a razor-sharp knife. He’s a savage who’ll cut down anything in his way…

Knife-Hand can only be matched with the kind of ruthlessness that burns within the Rogue Lawman. Monjosa’s killer instinct is a sharp as his hand, but Hawk’s fighting for something mightier than anything in Knife-Hand’s artillery – a personal vendetta…

Peter Brandvold begins the fifth book in the Rogue Lawman series with Hawk taking on a gang of outlaws in an exciting, and bloody, gunfight. This sets the scene for the rest of the story, with Hawk up against massive odds, which seem almost impossible for him to win against.

As expected the violence is bloody and graphic, and there’s loads of it. Hawk finds himself teaming up with Sergeant Ironside and a person from his past (see previous books in the series). These three find themselves taking on Monjosa and his army of killers in a tremendous battle in which a Gatling gun is used to devastating effect.

Not only does Peter Brandvold have his hero facing death many times, Hawk will also have to deal with treachery and double-cross that will leave his soul scarred.

This book has to be recommended to those who enjoy the more brutal types of westerns, those filled with tough characters who take another’s life without a second thought or concern for their own.

Me? I’m eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.