Dead Man Riding

as by Lance Howard

A Black Horse Western from Hale, August 2010

Two years before, Logan Priest had left the woman he loved in hope of sheltering her from the dangers of his profession … but he made a terrible mistake. When a vicious outlaw whom he brought to justice escapes prison, he seeks revenge on the very woman that Priest once sought to protect.

Logan has no desire to return to the manhunting trail until he receives the outlaw’s grisly calling-card. Can he gather his wits in time to meet the challenge or will he become the killer’s next victim?

I’ve always enjoyed Lance Howard’s books, and this one is no exception. The opening sequences ask questions of whether the hero, Logan Priest, has done the right thing by leaving Serena behind when they both loved each other. The reader soon finds out he hasn’t when she is brutally killed, and when Priest finds this out in a very horrific way, the book explores feelings of guilt.

The anger this guilt triggers fuels the desire for revenge and the book steps up a gear and includes a neat little twist early on that throws both reader and Priest, as the man he suspects of murdering Serena was locked-up at the time of the killing.

Filled with fascinating and well-drawn characters such as Logan Priest, Dawn Hawthorne and Demarte Markello, the story grips the reader from the first pages and won’t let you go until the last. In fact left me wanting to read another of Lance Howard’s books right away.

Lance Howard is a pseudonym used by Howard Hopkins.

Dead Man Riding is officially released at the end of this month, but should be available now from the usual Internet booksellers.