DAKOTA MASSACRE

THE SCOUT #2

By Buck Gentry

Zebra, 1981

The cry is “massacre!” when a town is brutally stormed by a band of rampaging Indians. Before anyone can retaliate the surprise attack, Eli Holten sets out for Sioux territory. Since he spent six years of his life learning the ways of the Plains, the Scout knows the tribe and the territory like the back of his hand. And his instincts tell him that someone’s been playing a dirty trick.

Holten soon learns that army deserters have been masquerading as deadly Indians. They have been killing and scalping their victims – and now they’ve kidnapped his girl. Holten won’t take things lying down, not when his lady is held hostage, and not when his name is at stake – 

Emblazoned on the cover and spine of this book are the words adult western and this book is part of a number of series launched around this time by Zebra and other publishers under this banner. The opening scenes of Dakota Massacre fitting this theme perfectly, lasting a number of pages and described in explicit detail. But once Holten and Rebecca go their separate ways this story moves quickly into an all-out action-packed battle between Holten, the deserters, and the Sioux. Of course, there are a few more adult sessions but the vast majority of the book concerns the desperate fights to survive.

The author certainly doesn’t give Holten much time to catch his breath between adult or violent encounters. Most of the deadly bouts begin only a few lines after the previous bloody fight. At the rate Holten was eliminating Sioux warriors I did begin to wonder if he’d wipe out the entire nation in this one story. Holten doesn’t get it all his own way though, but he does seem to be able to shrug off wounds in minutes and continue with his mission as if he was never hit.

The battles are described in gory detail, spurting blood, shattered bone and spilled body contents vividly defined. At one-point Holten is tortured and what he has to endure is painfully detailed. The torture sequence leads to a truly nail-biting how is he going to get out of that alive scene acted out in the aptly named Canyon of Death.

Buck Gentry is a pseudonym behind which a number of different authors wrote, and this one was probably written by Steve Clark and I believe he wrote most of the early entries in this series. 

If you enjoy violent westerns that contain almost non-stop savage action and don’t mind some explicit sex scenes then this a book, and series, that should be on your reading list. Dakota Massacre left me looking forward to reading the next one very soon.