THROUGH WESTERN STORMS

THROUGH WESTERN STORMS

Edited by Richard Prosch

Independently published, August 2024

Crashing thunder! Pelting sand! The whirl of confusion and the winds of madness.

Join 13 unsurpassed storytellers to journey through Western storms with tales of perseverance, grit, and courage as vast as the 19th-century American landscape.

This is an excellent collection of well-written short stories that either feature characters battling against the elements or emotions. You’ll find tales that are heart-breaking, those that find humour in desperate situations, and everything in between. There are stories that feature real people such as Nannita Daisey and Oscar Wilde. There’s one that is about a strange long-necked creature. Others tell tales about soldiers, mechanics, and detectives. Most are about ordinary people struggling through life. 

One of the things that I enjoy about anthologies is discovering new authors and nearly all of these writers are new to me. I’ve only read stories by three of them before. Of course, it’s all subjective to the reader when it comes to picking out favourites, which authors you want to read more of, or singling out stories you aren’t so keen on.

If you pushed me to pick out my favourites, I’d name in the order they appear in the collection, A Death on the Concho, Valiant-For-Truth, White City, and Noah’s Lament as being my top choices. I will quickly add that the others are very good too.

If you want to introduce yourself to the work of some current authors, perhaps discovering some new favourites in the process, then I’d suggest you grab a copy of Through Western Storms as soon as you can. 

Contents

Another Man’s Sea by Vonn McKee

The Lost Diary of Nannita Daisey by Nancy McCabe

Hurricane at Hogg’s Holler by Scott McCrea

Go On by Jim Jones

Windmiller by Jackson Lowry

A Death on the Concho by Jane Little Botkin

A Cowtown Wind by Natalie Cline Bright & Denise F. McAllister

Valiant-For-Truth by Elisabeth Grace Foley

A Newspaper Comes to Cripple Creek by Big Jim Williams

A Death in the Family by W. Michael Farmer

White City by John D. Nesbitt

Noah’s Lament by Preston Lewis

American readers can get a copy here
British readers can get a copy here

Tin Star

A Ralph Compton novel by Jackson Lowry

Cover art by Chris McGrath

Berkley, April 2020

Luke Hadley never imagined he would be left for dead with a chest full of bullets on the day of his wedding. All he wanted to was tend to his farm with his new wife, Audrey, and begin their lives together.

But when the Rhoades hang crashes his wedding party, they wreak havoc and abduct his bride, leaving the lifeless bodies of his guests. Luke has only a sparse trail of clues to follow, but with help from a phony Pinkerton bade and a mysterious woman with many skills – including breaking him out of jail – he finally rides down those who’ve wronged him….

It’s been four years since the last Compton novel appeared on the shelves. The line came to an end at the time many publishers ceased producing westerns. Now Berkley have decided to bring the Compton books back, the first two appearing in April 2020 and two more have been announced for each and every month of this year and into the next. As many western fans will know, Ralph Compton passed away in September 1998, but with his books being so successful the publisher decided to keep his name alive by putting more new novels out under his name but written by a variety of other authors, their names also printed on the covers. Berkley have continued with this trend. Looking at the coming books they have been written by old favourites and some newer western authors, all promising some great reads for fans of the western genre.

Tin Star has been written by Jackson Lowry. He’s not a new author to me, although I have only read a short story by him and that was sometime ago, so I was keen to try a full-length novel by him.

Lowry has created a wonderful cast of characters for this book, each having their own personalities which is very evident in the three main female roles in his story. The hero, Luke Hadley, is also an engaging character, a farmer who is totally out of his depth tracking, and fighting, seasoned outlaws. Hadley’s ability with a gun is poor and he mostly misses his target. He’s also prone to charging into situations with thinking the consequences through and takes some heavy punishment for his rashness.

The story begins like many other westerns that have a man seeking vengeance against those who wronged him. The author adds an element of mystery in the unknown woman who appears to be helping him and this throws up the question of why? Lowry also has a couple of surprises waiting in store, one that proves to be a shocking revelation that proves to be a great twist to the plot, one I didn’t see coming.

Due to that great twist I don’t want to reveal anymore of the plotline here so as not to spoil the book for those planning to read it. What I will say is I really enjoyed reading this story and will be keen to read Jackson Lowry’s next Compton’s – two more have been announced, Never Bet Against a Bullet in June and The Lost Banshee Mine in July.