The Gallowsman

By Will Cade

Leisure, November 1998

Ben Woolard is a man ready to start over. The life he’s leaving behind is none too pretty, filled with ghosts and pain. When he lost his wife and children, he took to the bottle so hard he almost couldn’t find his way out again. And his career as a Union spy during the war still doesn’t sit quite right with him, even if the man sent to the gallows by his testimony was a murderer. But now Ben’s finally sobered up, moved west to Colorado, staked out a claim, put the past behind him.

But sometimes the past won’t lie still. Sometimes it just won’t stay buried. And, as Ben learns when folks start telling him that the man he saw hanged is alive and in town – sometimes those ghosts come back.

This is a book filled with intrigue. Not only is the main storyline laced with mystery but also the sub-plot involving an attractive young woman who disguises herself as a man to hide her identity from her half-brother who she claims will kill her if he finds her.

The author has come up with a great set of characters and has plenty of surprises waiting for them, and the reader, as the plot unfolds. Gold teeth, ghosts and the young lady I’ve already mentioned all having important roles to play as this story builds to its deadly conclusion.

This isn’t a story filled with gunplay, although it does contain some vicious action scenes, but a lot of the killings take place off screen so to speak. Don’t let that put you off reading this though, as the author certainly knows how to write a suspenseful story that keeps you turning the pages in a quest to discover just what is going on. Arson, murder, beatings and kidnapping all raise their ugly heads during this twisting tale that sees Ben Woolard questioning his past and whether he can trust those he becomes involved with whilst trying to forge a new life for himself. Woolard will have to endure both physical and emotional batterings before discovering the truth. Neither storyline being resolved as I expected which enhanced my total enjoyment of this book.

Will Cade is a pseudonym used by Cameron Judd and this book certainly has me looking forward to reading more of his work soon.