Hell on Wheels

SHERIFF STILLMAN 8

By Peter Brandvold

Berkley, September 2006

When Sheriff Ben Stillman accompanies Judge John Bannon and friends to a wedding in Sulfur, Montana Territory, he aims to have a nice long weekend of rest and respite from gunslinging. But Angus Whateley has other plans. He’s just been released from prison, and he’s out to avenge the hanging of his cattle-rustling sons – hangings ordered by Bannon.

Backed by a gang of the most violent and vicious members of his family, Whateley strikes when the judge takes the stagecoach back home. Soon, Stillman finds himself fighting a wheel-bound war against a clan of killers out for bloody revenge…

Peter Brandvold puts Sheriff Stillman into the middle of a fight not of his making in this excellent entry in the series. With his wife accompanying him and other friends too, the lawman really has no choice but to take on the outlaws.

There is plenty of bloody violent gunplay to be found in this book, a lot of which is described in all its gory horror, just witness a couple of brutal killings at the stage station to see what I mean. 

Those who’ve followed this series will be aware of Stillman’s medical issues, and here they get worse, striking him down at the worst moments possible, adding extra tension to his frantic struggles to protect the stagecoach occupants. 

The author switches between the various groups of characters at regular intervals. This allows him time to fill in the backstory of what happened to make Whateley so intent on killing Bannon. We also discover secrets about one of the other stage passengers that adds more depth to the story. 

As the passengers are forced to split up so Stillman’s attempts to save them all become more desperate. As some of Stillman’s friends fall into the clutches of the Whateley clan it seems as if they are doomed to die.

I’ve always enjoyed the Sheriff Stillman novels, they are certainly some of my favourites of Peter Brandvold’s many series. Filled with tough, resourceful characters of both sexes, plots that hit as hard as a .45 bullet and nerve-tearing action scenes, I find these books extremely difficult to put down and this one is right up there with the very best that this series has to offer.

Unfortunately Berkley didn’t publish anymore books in this series, but Peter Brandvold didn’t let that stop him putting out more Stillman stories. Through self-publishing and then with Wolfpack Publishing (who’ve also made all the old books available again) Sheriff Stillman continues to battle the lawless and the series has now reached its fourteenth book, and I’m very much looking forward to reading them all as soon as I can.