LAST MAN IN LAZARUS

By Bill Shields

Hale, March 2012

When a town marshal is murdered by five escaping prisoners and his new bride is abducted, the killers think they have escaped the justice they deserve. But the marshal’s older brother is Nathan Holly, a feared and relentless US marshal, who is more than happy to take up pursuit.

Holly rides north with a one-man posse, a Paiute tracker called Tukwa. For years Tukwa has searched for the cavalry officer who mistakenly, but brutally, massacred his family. Both men will end their search amidst the winter snows of a mining town called Lazarus, in a storm of blood and vengeance which will turn the landscape red.

Last Man in Lazarus is the second Black Horse Western from Bill Shields, and after enjoying his first book, The Snake River Bounty, I was keen to read this.

If you like books packed with action then you need look no further than this. Savage bloody gunfights and knife duels fill the pages, as Holly tracks down the men who killed his brother. The trail of the last murderer takes the lawman to the town of Lazarus where Tukwa finds the man he has been hunting, but why is this men here? Something isn’t quite right in Lazarus and Holly finds himself involved in the towns’ troubles too.

Great lead and support characters and plenty of twists and turns to the plot told in a very readable and fast moving pace made this book very difficult to put down. The book offers a question too, is there any difference between the vengeance that drives both Holly and Tukwa? Tukwa will only be satisfied with killing the ex-cavalry officer but can Holly be satisfied with taking his prey alive or will death be the only way to quench his appetite for revenge?

I can only finish by saying that I hope it’s not too long before Bill Shields’ third book appears.

Last Man in Lazarus is officially released on March 30th but is available now from the usual Internet sources.

The Snake River Bounty

By Bill Shields

A Black Horse Western from Hale, February 2011

As a young man, Ben Hollinger hunted down and killed the outlaw gang who murdered his family. He now lives a very different life as the marshal of a sleepy cattle town.

But his hopes for a peaceful future are shattered when he kills a young troublemaker who has forced him into a gunfight. The boy’s father, Nate Thornton, owns the biggest ranch in the territory and he puts a bounty on Hollinger’s head.

Violence sweeps the town as every local gun-hand tries to hunt Hollinger down to claim Thornton’s bounty. His only hope for survival is an alliance with the rancher’s daughter, Cordelia, but will she really be prepared to side with the man who killed her brother?

The shooting of Billy Thornton happens very early on in this story and from then on this book is virtually one action scene after another. As the bounty hunters and opportunistic gunmen gather and make attempts on Ben Hollinger’s life, so he is forced to hide. This, in turn, sees the lawman decide to sneak on to Thornton’s property to try and arrest the rancher. With Thornton, Hollinger, and a few others trapped in a room in the ranch house, Bill Shields provides some excellent, and very tense, reading.

Overall, this is an extremely well flowing, easy to read book. Shields paces the story perfectly, building to the final showdown smoothly. Descriptions and characterizations are handled expertly and I was soon wondering how Cordelia would decide which side she should support.

Bill Shields is a new author name to me and to Black Horse Westerns. On the strengths of this story I hope we will see more books carrying his name.

The Snake River Bounty has an official release date of the last day of this month, but is available now from the usual Internet booksellers.