Two Guns North

BODIE MEETS BRAND

By Neil Hunter

Piccadilly Publishing, August 2015

Jason Brand’s latest assignment took him into the San Juan Mountains of New Mexico. He was looking for a Deputy US Marshal and a government geologist, both of whom had gone missing. But what should have been a routine assignment turned out to be anything but—with an unexpected surprise for him along the way.

Bodie the Stalker, on a hunt for a brutal killer, rode the same trail. For him it was just another manhunt … until he found himself on the wrong end of the chase.

Then there was the Monk clan … They were a family that had no time for visitors because they had secrets to hide and were more than prepared to kill in order to keep them.

But then Bodie met Brand. And when they joined forces, the Monks found themselves fighting for their lives.

Brand and Bodie—when they teamed up it was like hell had come to the high country.

So who are Bodie and Brand?

Bodie is a bounty hunter known as The Stalker. He appeared in a six book series published in the UK back 1979. Brand’s publishing history is a little more complicated. This series was originally written for Norwegian publisher Bladkompaniet (who put out the Morgan Kane series). Later some of these books appeared in English, published by Linford Western Library and it was rumoured there was a planned book that would see Neil Hunter’s two heroes team up, something fans of these series really wanted to see happen. Sadly it didn’t until now, some 35 years later!

Piccadilly Publishing have recently put out all six Bodie novels as ebooks and have done the same with the nine Brand stories. And now they are pleased to publish as an ebook that long hoped for team-up tale, Two Guns North.

The book offers everything one could have hoped for. A superbly told tale that really is action packed as the Monk clan seem to have a never ending extended family ready to try their luck against Bodie and Brand.

Neil Hunter tells the story more from Brand’s point-of-view than that of Bodie. This was probably necessary due to the unforeseen surprise that’s waiting for Brand early on in this tale, a shock that could be life-changing for him that makes this a must read for followers of the Brand series.

It takes a little while for Bodie to appear but when he does the blood and bullets fly. In fact virtually every time Bodie is featured you are guaranteed gunplay – and lots of it.

As I don’t want to spoil this excellent story for anyone all I’ll say is that if you’ve yet to read a Bodie or Brand tale then this is a great place to start and I’m sure once read you’ll be snapping up the earlier titles. And for those who are already fans of both series there is great news as the end of the book advertises the fact the Mike Linaker (the author behind the pseudonyms of Neil Hunter) will be writing new books, with Bodie #7: Desert Run due for publication on December 1st. Brand #10: The Killing Days and Bodie #8: The High Riders to follow and hopefully there will be many more too.