The Hellrakers

By Owen G. Irons

Hale, January 2012

Meeting the Van Connely gang was like coming face to face with hell. Skyler Lynch had hired them, along with his old friend Randy Staggs, to help him drive a herd of horses southward to the Pocono country, where he and his daughter, Kate, had a little ranch.

Van Connely didn’t take long to steal the herd and murder Lynch, before setting off on a rampage across the Southwest. He wasn’t the kind of man to reflect on the past but perhaps he should have.

After all, he had left Randy Staggs alive, and Randy had vowed to track him down even if he had to follow him to the ends of the earth….

This book follows both Staggs and the Connely gang, switching between them so the reader can follow the paths of both. Most of the action comes from the Connely gang as the reader witnesses their trail of destruction and mayhem.

Not only does Staggs have a vengeance quest to fulfil, but he also has to break the news of Lynch’s death to his daughter. Staggs’ also has problems with a horse, and it’s this that will make this an appealing book to all horse lovers, as this animal is as much a star of the story as any of the human characters.

Like always, Owen G. Irons (really prolific author Paul Lederer), presents the reader with a fast moving, easy to read story that revolves around a well thought-out plot, that will keep the reader hooked.

Although the final showdown between Stagg’s and Connely is as expected the method of the outlaws’ death comes as a complete surprise, and is one I haven’t read of very often in a BHW, or indeed any other western, making for a neat ending, that once again left me looking forward to the next book by this author.