Not many men get a second chance at life. But thanks to a chief U.S. marshal who needs their help, the bank-robbing duo of Jimmy “Slash” Braddock and Melvin “Pecos Kid” Baker are on the right side of the law. As unofficial marshals, they’ve agreed to pick up three prisoners from a Milestown jail and escort them to Denver. Sounds easy enough – until they learn the prisoners are an unholy trio of sadistic cutthroat killers known as Talon, “Hellraisin’” Frank, and the Sioux called Black Pot. And they’ve managed to escape before Slash and Pecos even show up. . .
The three convicts have turned Milestown into their own savage slayground. Drinking, killing, ravaging – and worse – they’re painting the town red with blood and burning it to the ground. Slash and Pecos manage to stop them in the nick of time. But getting these three to Denver is another story – because the trio’s leader has offered a thousand-dollar bounty to anyone who can kill Slash and Pecos. This is going to be one wicked ride that Slash and Pecos will never forget – if they live to tell about it. . .
The above blurb is taken from the book. I’ve often wondered who writes these and when? The reason being that quite a lot of the above doesn’t tie in to the actual story. It does give you a good idea of the plotline though. The town isn’t called Milestown, it’s Dry Fork. Slash and Pecos don’t arrive in the nick of time as the outlaws have just about killed every citizen and burnt most of it to the ground before our unofficial lawmen arrive. The biggest mistake in the blurb is that the trio’s leader doesn’t offer any kind of bounty on Slash and Pecos. What makes the journey extremely dangerous is that the rest of the three prisoner’s gang are determined to free them.
This fast-moving, action-packed tale begins with the three killers being captured. Slash and Pecos then drive their jail wagon to Dry Fork. Along the way, Slash is distracted as he contemplates his forthcoming marriage to Jaycee Breckenrigdge. This leads to some humorous dialogue between Slash and Pecos. Their constant bickering throughout the book adds some welcome light relief to the darker tones of the story. Once Slash and Pecos arrive in what remains of Dry Fork the violent content of the tale really ramps up. To make matters worse, Slash and Pecos find themselves joined by two survivors of the slaughter in Dry Fork. Both who struggle to deal with what has happened to them and these horrors could be the death of them all.
The three killers are fleshed-out well, each having their own personalities. There can be no-other way to describe them than pure evil. Their exchanges with Slash and Pecos provide some terrific tense scenes and you just know they are going to make a play for freedom at some point, and when this comes it produces a very memorable moment in the story.
The book has a secondary storyline too. This involves Jaycee and the girl, Myra, who works for Slash and Pecos, as Jaycee has to fight off unwanted attentions from the local lawmen and in doing so discovers a plan to rob a stagecoach. Can the two young ladies stop this from happening? This provides another exciting element to the book.
The Wicked Die Twice is extremely well-written book, full of tough and often quite brutal scenes. Like I’ve already mentioned, these are balanced neatly with lighter moments, most often through Slash and Pecos’s banter. The final gunfights are exciting and bring about a fitting ending to the plotlines with other elements being brought to a close in an epilogue that left a smile on my face.
If you’ve not read any of the books featuring Slash and Pecos then I suggest you do so as they are a couple of fun characters and the troubles they get involved in should entertain all western fans.
