Sundown at Singing River

By Ty Kirwan

Hale, April 2012

Recognizing that the era of his profession has ended, gunfighter Jorje Katz rides into the town of Singing River to begin a new life. On arrival he discovers that the partner he had financed is long dead, and with no money to his name, his only option is to become a hired gun in a war that is raging between two political factions in the town.

Dragged back into his old ways, but with a woman to remind him just how good life can be, he despairs until he is appointed Sheriff of Singing River. At last it seems that his dreams can finally be realized….

Looking at this book you’d be forgiven for thinking this is the first Black Horse Western to carry the author name of Ty Kirwan as Hale haven’t listed any others. In fact this is Kirwain’s sixth BHW, the previous book being published way back in June 2001. Why the big gap? I have no idea, as I haven’t any knowledge of this author, other than seeing somewhere that Ty Kirwan is a female writer.

The story is told over ten chapters, each of these being broken down into short scenes that swap between the characters, and these scenes often end on a cliff-hanger making it difficult to put the book down until that problem has been resolved…only thing is these usually lead to yet another dangerous decision or situation….

The book is well written and moves forward at a fast pace. Character studies are well done and made me want to find out what happened to them. Kirwain doesn’t believe in giving her hero an easy time as he gets shot and beaten a couple of times. There’s plenty of gunplay as Katz tries to keep control of the deadly situation. As if the power struggle between the two political sides isn’t enough for Katz to deal with, he also becomes the centre of attention for two strong willed women, each seeing him as husband material, and jealousy adds to Katz problems.

Ty Kirwan’s book falls into the category of being one of the longer BHW, and it needs to be so the tangled plot can run its course without feeling rushed. Overall I found this book to be an enjoyable read and can only hope it isn’t another eleven years before Ty Kirwan’s next book appears.