THE RIMROCKER and THE OUTLAWED

SHAWN STARBUCK 1 & 2

By Ray Hogan

Piccadilly Publishing; January 2018

THE RIMROCKER – It was more than Shawn Starbuck had reckoned for. Unceasingly he had searched for his brother – a legacy at stake for them both – asking endless questions on numberless trails, in sun baked-towns, at desolate huts and sprawling ranches . . . and now it seemed, at long last, his search would end. Only it wasn’t that simple. Suddenly there were three desperate men on the scene – cutthroats and renegades – each staunchly determined to see Starbuck dead. If they couldn’t do the job, the richest man in the territory would hire gunslingers who could. Starbuck had a choice. He could turn tail, clear out, and save his hide. But he wasn’t the kind of man who dodged trouble – no matter what the odds.

THE OUTLAWED – Starbuck had ridden endless miles over the trackless southwest on an unending quest for his brother. Now he was almost on the heels of the man who might be Ben. But deep in the wilds of Arizona, Starbuck stopped to aid a stranger against savage Apaches, a man on a mysterious mission of his own, a man who led Starbuck into a web of vengeance and bloody violence.

Piccadilly Publishing continue their own quest to bring back excellent westerns from the past so that those who may have missed them the first time around can discover new authors or heroes. This is the case for me. I have long been aware of Ray Hogan, and his twenty-four-book series published in the 1970’s featuring Shawn Starbuck, but have never got around to reading these books, or any others by this author. Packaging two books in each ebook edition at very attractive prices made it a perfect opportunity for me to try Ray Hogan’s work and I’m extremely glad I did.

The first thing that struck me was how well these books, both originally published in 1970, stand up with those being published today. True, Starbuck may have a very obvious belief in the difference between right and wrong, whereas modern western writers often grey that area, but this was one of the things that appealed to me about Starbuck. The fact that he won’t back down until justice is served as he sees it should be is a strong and memorable trait of the character.

As expected the first book tells of Starbuck’s past, of why he is hunting his brother. It also explains Starbuck’s ability of using his fists and this type of fighting features heavily in both these stories, as I imagine it will in the rest of the series. Both tales seem to be straight-forward in plot but then Hogan injects twists that took me by surprise and heightened my enjoyment of these well written and very readable books.

It is rare for me to read two books by the same author one after the other, but on finishing The Rimrocker I just had to dive straight into The Outlawed and on finishing the second story I found myself wondering how it is I’ve only just discovered this terrific series and author and now I’m chomping at the bit waiting for the next two books to be published, and as it seems Piccadilly are hoping to put these double volumes out bi-monthly I haven’t got long to wait.