Western Fiction News

With the surge of ebooks finding their way onto Kindle and like devices, here's a couple that are worth considering as additions to your collection:

TENDERFOOT 

by Terry Coffey

A tenderfoot, who calls himself Ulysses Noman, is searching for outlaw Bart Matthews. Noman says he’s an attorney looking to pass some news to Matthews. Matthews wonders if this stranger who seems out of his element, is in fact a bounty hunter looking to turn him in?

This short story is well written and is told in the first person from the viewpoint of Bart Matthews. The tale offers some mystery into the true identity of the stranger; is he who he says he is or a bounty hunter as Matthews fears? This question is the hook that kept me reading to find out the answer. Events didn’t turn out quite how I thought they would and the ending provided a neat conclusion that left me hoping Terry Coffey might try his hand at a full length western novel someday.

Tenderfoot is available on Kindle now for just $1.38.

                                                

THE SHERIFF AND THE WIDOW 

by Chap O’Keefe

As dangerous as unstable dynamite . . . that was Sheriff Ross Kemp's assessment of Jessica Blackwood. She was darkly beautiful, and she was married to the richest rancher around. Mysterious notes, a bizarre accusation and the bushwhack murder of her madly jealous husband shoved Kemp into the biggest trouble of his life.Tried and convicted on a trumped-up charge, Kemp was sentenced to ten years of living hell in the state pen.His only hope was Jessica's lovely stepdaughter, Ellen, but as Ellen began to uncover the truth she fell into deadly danger from Orson Rymer, gambler and blackmailer, and Snake McClay, evil-minded gunslick. It looked as if justice would never be done!

This book is on offer at the giveaway price of $0.99 (£0.86). Look out for a review soon.

Chap also has two other ebooks available: Liberty and the Law Badge, and Misfit Lil Cheats the Hangrope.

Anyone remember a series that came out in the early 1970's about "Buffalo Hunter O'Brien" by Ralph Hayes? All those who've said yes will be pleased to know that O'Brien is about to ride the trail once more in a book to be published by Hale under their Black Horse Western banner on October 31st 2011.

FORT REVENGE 

by Ralph Hayes

When buffalo hunter O'Brien is wrongly accused of rustling by ranch hands and has to kill the rancher's son to defend himself from hanging, he thought his life had already taken a bad turn. However, within a day's ride from that violent scene, he happens upon Sarah Carter. Together they follow the dangerous road to Fort Revenge, where Sarah is due to wed Jake Latimer. It becomes clear that Latimer is not the man for Sarah, but can O'Brien save Sarah as well as dealing with his own troubles from the past...

December 2011 will see the publication of The Trailsman #362: Range War, and this book carries the first in another cover style change for the series; the eighth by my reckoning.