By Carl Williams
A Black Horse Western from Hale, December 2010
Royce rides into Jawbone looking for a doctor and finds nothing but trouble. But then how can he expect anything else when he lives by the gun?
Royce signs on with the land baron Yale Jamerson, hoping for a job that will give his conscience a rest, but Jamerson’s plans to dam the river and charge tolls on the road lead the townspeople to revolt.
Now Royce is forced to choose between his livelihood and his conscience. Will he choose the right path, especially if it means a showdown with his closet friend?
As far as I can tell Fool’s Play is the first Black Horse Western by Carl Williams. It is also a longer book than most of the BHW I have read recently – it has the same number of pages but much smaller print.
Jamerson is a hard man attempting to control and hold back progress. He’s not an evil man but his methods of trying to hold onto a way of life he knows are not welcomed by the people who live in the nearby town, people who want to see their town grow. This leads to all kinds of tense confrontations, particularly when the town brings in some lawmen that are nothing more than hired guns.
Royce makes for an excellent hero. He’s a man who can see the problems facing each side in this power struggle. Of course it soon becomes apparent Royce will have to quite working for Jamerson and side with the town and the woman who is showing an interest in him. This leads to a spectacular showdown on the dam.
Carl Williams definitely knows how to build a story and hook a reader, making this a book that I found very difficult to put down until I found out how everything was resolved. The climax to the story bringing about some surprising endings for a few of the characters; which in a couple of cases was not how I expected things to finish.
On the strength of this book I’m definitely looking forward to more from Carl Williams. Fool’s Play is available to buy now from the usual Internet sources although it isn’t officially released until the end of the month.
Hey again, another Lone Star question.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed you seem to know who the writers are; is there a place where that's posted, or are you in the know? I'd like to find out if LS 21 {Apache's Revenge} and LS 142 {Deadly Vixens} was written by the same author, as well as who wrote LS 143 {Saloon in Hell}
Thank ya kindly!
Unfortunately I don't know who all the writers are behind the Lone Star series, and I don't know of any place that lists them either. My knowledge is just info I've picked up over the years and added to my own lists.
ReplyDeleteLS 21 and 142 - these two books fall into the unknown author category.
LS 143 - I believe was written by Dan Schmidt. There's the possibility that he wrote more but I don't know which.
I'll ask around and see if I can come up with anymore info.
Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI rarely see similarities, and I have no idea how to explain it when I do, but my gut simply tells me those two were written by the same author. And my gut won't stop hounding me till I find out! ;o)
As for 143, it's my favorite and I just wanna know!