It didn’t start out well for Skye Fargo. First the Trailsman caught an arrow from Apaches who thought he was the one who butchered their old men and raped their women. Then he stopped a slug when he came too close to the real killers. He came to in an Arizona hell with his guns gone, his life bleeding away, and one idea blazing through his brain. He had nowhere to go this side of the grave but up – and nothing he wanted to do more than to kill….
Glenn Bavousett wrote twelve Trailsman books as Jon Sharpe. Gun Valley was his last. I have read a couple of his other entries into this series, but that was a long, long time ago and I don’t remember much about them. All the authors who wrote for the series have their own take on the man known as The Trailsman, and Bavousett’s portrayal of Skye Fargo doesn’t paint him as tough, or as quick-witted as the main authors did. Fargo also takes some punishment in the form of an arrow and a couple of bullets. It was surprising to see that Fargo actually followed the doctors’ instructions to lay up for a week or so whilst recovering, although he did exercise which the doc frowned upon.
As quite a lengthy portion of the story dealt with Fargo’s recovery meant that there wasn’t as much action as I’d usually expect from a Trailsman book. This isn’t a criticism as it did fit the plotline perfectly. There is action of course especially at the end as Fargo and an old friend take on superior odds in an exciting final showdown as two separate gangs converge on The Trailsman and all three sides meet at the same time. I was a little disappointed that one character who’d been featured quite a bit throughout the book seemed to disappear somewhere in this concluding gunfight.
Being an adult western series there is some explicit sex, although this is mostly dealt with quickly and can easily be skipped without missing anything essential to the plot if you so choose.
There are many better entries in the Trailsman series, but this is by no means bad and it did keep me entertained throughout.
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