After his friend and fellow Ranger, Bass Burnett is killed, Vic Jamison reluctantly re-joins the Arizona Rangers as an undercover agent. His mission —to clean up the savage Rio Diablo country— a job that the army had given up on ten years ago.
In a stubborn battle against cruel elements and even crueler men, he soon comes to realize why so many men died in pursuit of the same goal. . . and why his chances of survival are no better.
From the opening scenes I was easily pulled into this gritty story. Vic Jamison makes for an engaging character who has to battle men and nature in his struggle to find out just who is behind the killing of his friend, and others. Not only that, there is the question of why?
Jamison soon rescues a girl from a raging flash flood and an attraction to each other follows quickly. Jamison rides away though, to join up with Deborah’s enemies. This doesn’t go down too well with her and her father. Jamison hasn’t told them, or anyone else, his true purpose for being in the Diablo Mountains or even his real name. As the odds rise against Jamison, I began to question whether he’d be successful in his mission, never mind win the heart of the girl.
There is plenty of tough action that is hard-hitting in its description. Shirreffs is also very good at describing locations, the harsh unforgiving mountains and canyons coming over as dangerous as any man.
Jamison stands up for himself, even when the odds are against him, or when he’d be better off keeping quiet. This alienates him against those he’s trying to gain the trust of and places him in some deadly situations. Everything builds to an exciting and brutal showdown that made me wonder if Jamison would survive the final gunfight.
Does Jamison live? Does he ride off into the sunset with the girl? I’m not going to answer those questions here. All I will say is I’m sure western fans will enjoying finding out for themselves.
I own a lot of Gordon D. Shirreffs' books, but for some reason haven’t read many of them. Each time I do read one I have to wonder why I don’t read his work more often as he sure knows how to spin a great yarn.
As you will see from the cover art above, Wolfpack Publishing have just released Rio Diablo in a double book also containing The Proud Gun as they continue to republish Gordon D. Shirreffs' back catalogue.
3 comments:
I've enjoyed most of the Shirreffs books I've read very much, particularly for his depiction of the south west and their tough quality. Unfortunately though he does tend to rely on two particular plot devices a great deal which makes many of the stories predictable as soon as they appear.
Shirreffs is one of the writers who inspired me to become one myself. I liked his punchy, economical prose, his grittiness and authenticity, (he seemed particularly knowledgeable about Apaches) that most of his westerns I read were tough, outdoor yarns with refreshingly flawed and realistic, sometimes cynical heroes. One of my favourites is the U. S. Cavalry versus Apaches tale RIO BRAVO.
He wrote a book appearing as an ace double titled Hanging Pards filled with suspense and fine writing.
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