The Broken Horseshoe

by Billy Hall

A Black Horse Western from Hall, July 2010

Coleman Black is stumped by a string of murders and robberies near the boomtown of Deadwood. His best friend, hired to transport money from a cattle sale, is among the victims. Cole is desperate to find the answers but, with no clues to go by, the killer could be anyone.

When Cole decides to take some inspired advice from a new friend, he has no idea that he is being led directly into the line of fire. Meanwhile, the killer smiles as he silently waits in the cover of timber, his rifle already aimed at Cole’s heart…

Fistfight, gunfights, ambush, murder, chases – virtually every chapter of this book contains at least one of them, so if it’s an action packed read you are after then this could be just the book for you.

Billy Hall has been writing Black Horse Westerns for around twenty years and definitely knows how to write a fast moving, well paced, story. This one revolves around murder, and who is doing the killing, and why, remains a mystery until the author decides to reveal this persons identity, thus the reader shares the frustrations and suspicions of Coleman Black.

Black is teamed up with a Negro named White, which allows Billy Hall to inject some humorous dialogue around these characters names. Of course a coloured man riding a well-kept horse and carrying guns leads to problems for White, but this isn’t the only reason for including the Negro, as it’s his past experiences that lead to the method used to finally track down the killer.

Why it’s taken so long for me to discover the work of Billy Hall is another mystery – this being only the second book I’ve read by him – but what I can say is he’s now on the list of my favourite Black Horse Western authors.

The Broken Horseshoe is officially released at the end of this month but it should be available now from the usual Internet sources.