Hellraiser!

By Sam Clancy

Crowood Press, March 2019

After his last indiscretion, Bass sends Josh Ford to Texas. Let him be someone else’s headache for a while. The marshal there is an old friend and welcomes the badge-toting hellraiser with open arms and a whole wagon load of trouble.

Then word comes that Bass is missing and Ford swears he’ll walk through the fires of Hell itself to find out what has happened to his father.

In the end, he does just that. Shoulder to shoulder with a marshal called Willis and a fast gun named Laramie Davis.

Like the other books I’ve read by this author, Hellraiser! is an action-packed tale that moves forwards at a terrific pace as Ford finds himself involved in two different missions. In fact, the book is divided into two parts, so it’s almost like you are getting two stories for the price of one.

The first part sees Ford taking on the Dent clan, a vicious family that nearly everyone in town is related to in some way and most of them are out to kill Ford. There’s a neat twist as to one of the Dent’s careers that is the cause for even more anger and bloodshed. 

The second part covers Ford’s attempt to find his missing father and as the death toll rises it becomes apparent this is a tale of revenge that sees Ford forced into becoming an executioner for those who’ve taken Bass. This of course causes a dilemma for Ford as he has to decide between enforcing the law or committing murder.

I don’t think it’s much of a secret that Sam Clancy is a pseudonym used by author Brent Towns who also writes as B.S. Dunn. Under this latter name he wrote a five book series about Laramie Davis, and it’s great to see him appear in Hellraiser!, the teaming of Ford and Davies making for a terrific partnership in the quest to find and free Bass.

Hellraiser! is the fourth book starring Josh Ford, and even though it ends like it could be the last, I hope it isn’t. Here’s wishing Sam Clancy/Brent Towns will write another soon as I’ve yet to read any work by this author I haven’t enjoyed, and Josh Ford is one of my favourite characters he’s created.