To Die This Day

as by Clint Ryker
A Black Horse Western from Hale, January 2010

The rich and powerful Traffords are both proud and relieved when their eldest son, Luke, returns home safely to the family ranch after the war. When his wartime partner and hero, Clayton Grady, shows up too, the homecoming celebrations rock the county.

How could veteran Luke Trafford know that this seemingly happy event would in time tear his family apart and lead to a nightmare of deceit, suspicion and bloody murder, as horrific as anything he had encountered during the war…

Like the majority of Black Horse Westerns, this book is a very quick and easy read. Clint Ryker plots his tale well, introducing a number of great characters, such as the old ranch hand, Kentucky, who soon becomes suspicious of Grady. Then there is the Sheriff, Ben Clanton, who is tracking down a gang of bank robbers, and the two bounty hunters who are hunting the same men.

Ryker spends most of the time developing his characters and bringing them all together for the final violent confrontation. Ryker creates a building tension as he slowly reveals the truth about Grady, one that at anytime threatens to explode in savage violence.

Black Horse Westerns are well produced books so I was a little surprised when reading the blurb on the book (I’ve altered it above) to see a mix-up of names as of what happens to who, but this, of course, is an observation that wont spoil the readers enjoyment of the book.

To Die This Day has a release date of the January 30th, and is now available for pre-order at many Internet bookstores.

Gunman's Walk

as by Clint Ryker
A Black Horse Western from Hale, July 2009

It was hard not to like young Kid Silk. Even Coder, the hard man of the gun, found the Kid good company on the trail, after riding to Mexico to bring him home.

But the Kid’s sister expected Coder to bring her brother back dead, and he knew he could die trying to prove her wrong. He was fated to follow a long, hard trail with many dangers on the way before he could accomplish his mission.

The above blurb gives the impression that most of the book is taken up with the journey back from Mexico but the opposite is true. After a violent introduction to Ryan Coder and him being hired to find Danny Wardlaw – it’s unknown at this time that he now calls himself Kid Silk – the main part of the story is taken up with tracking down the Kid. During this time there is plenty of action and during these confrontations the author makes sure the reader knows just how hard Coder is. This latter part is important as to strengthen the impact of the end of the story.

Once Coder has found, and freed the Kid from his Rurale captors, the trail home can begin, both men unaware that some vengeance seeking bandidos are planning to ambush them and a group of Rangers haven’t given up on their mission to bring the kid in for justice. This, of course, leads to lots more fast moving gun action that finally exposes some truths about the Kid, which in turn leads to a different side of Coder being revealed, making for a moving ending to the book.

Does Coder manage to bring the Kid home alive to prove that Danny’s sister’s views about him are wrong? That’s something I’m not going to answer, just say that if you choose to read this book you should enjoy finding out for yourself.

Clint Ryker – presumably a pseudonym – is a new author to me, and is a writer I shall be keeping my eye on. Gunman’s Walk is Ryker’s fifth BHW. It has an official release date of July 31st but is available now.