The Legend of Roxy Doyle

LADY GUNSMITH #1

By J.R. Roberts

Speaking Volumes, February 2017

Roxanne Louise Doyle, is Lady Gunsmith, the daughter of Gavin Doyle. The early legend of Roxy Doyle begins when her mother is killed on a wagon train, leaving her father to raise and care for his little girl. Before her father disappears, he leaves his daughter to be raised by a Mormon family. At age fifteen, Roxy leaves her foster family to find her father. In time she learns the hard truth that her father has become a famed bounty hunter who is now thought to be dead.

Roxy continues her relentless search and at age twenty she meets the famous Gunsmith, Clint Adams, who trains her as a gunfighter. Still searching for her father, Roxy meets the notorious Belle Starr and her handsome husband, Sam. Together they fall into an intrigue involving other legends of the West. Does Lady Gunsmith find her father? Does she live up to her legend with a gun in the final draw?

With over four hundred books published in The Gunsmith series it would be hard to believe that there aren’t any fans of the western genre that have not come across the author name of J.R. Roberts, or don’t know that it’s a pseudonym used by Robert J. Randisi who has authored more than five hundred published books. Now he turns his attention to a series featuring a heroine, Roxy Doyle.

Fans of the already mention Gunsmith series will have to add this book to their reading list as Clint Adams features quite prominently in this book, and it’s due to the tag of Lady Gunsmith that Adams decides to teach Roxy the art of using a handgun effectively. The story starts earlier than this though, and like any origin tale, often jumps back in time to tell of Roxy’s mother being killed and her troubled upbringing, and rise to legend.

Lady Gunsmith is classed as an adult series, and yes, it does contain a fair amount of explicit sex. What I found interesting is how Roxy soon learns that her beauty makes men crave for her and how this can be used to her advantage from an early age. This has a downside too, in that her stunning looks lead to a lot of unwanted attention that it turn leads to a number of deadly situations that are often resolved by gunplay.

Right from the start of The Gunsmith series, Robert Randisi, included many real life characters on both sides of the law, and this book continues that trend. I’m not going to mention who Roxy comes into contact with (other than those mentioned in the above blurb) so as not to spoil the surprise that is revealed at the end of the book.

If you’ve never read any of Robert Randisi’s other westerns you get what you’d expect from him, a very fast moving, dialogue driven tale that combines real and fictional characters in a plot that contains a touch of mystery that will keep you turning the pages and will leave you entertained and, like me, looking forward to the publication of the second Lady Gunsmith book, The Three Graves of Roxy Doyle, in May.