Coalmine

as by Jack Giles

A Black Horse Western from Hale, 1987

The man folks called ‘The Hunter’ had been a mining engineer until he had been injured in a mining accident. Taking pity on him, Helga Rutger, the woman that he had jilted at the alter, found him work - supplying her father’s fashionable restaurant with fresh game. It gave him a living and some sort of pride. But then came a message that was to take him on a trail of death and double-dealing and a confrontation with the Unions and their hired guns.

Although coal mining plays a part in this story it’s only the background to a fast paced tale of intrigue, violence and great characters. Jack Giles (author Ray Foster) tells part of his story in a series of flashbacks that’ll soon have you wondering as to the true intentity of the man known as ‘The Hunter’.

None of Giles’ characters are there to make up numbers either, each has a part to play in this story of friendship, greed and revenge. The action is fast and brutal, the hired guns savagely evil.

But the part that has stayed with me the longest is the struggle one man has with how and when to tell his family he’s dying, not realizing his wife has seen the changes in him and has kept quiet to let him hang onto his dignity.

Well worth tracking down a copy.

The Fourth Horseman

as by Jack Giles

A Black Horse Western from Hale, 1994
(the cover shown is from the Dales print)

Friday the thirteenth. A thunder storm. A tall man dressed entirely in black signs into the hotel, takes room thirteen. Willard Dull, Government agent, watches the stranger check in. His curiosity getting the better of him Dull takes a look at the register, the entry reads; Name: Death, Town: Hell, Occupation: You don’t want to know. And before midnight Death claims the lives of two men.

Excellent beginning to a story filled with intrigue. Death makes for a very memorable character as he begins to up the death toll. There’s blackmail, bribery, payroll robbers, and lawmen that may just be crooked. All these men with their own agenda’s but it looks like all their plans are about to fall apart as Death begins to reap a grim harvest.

Jack Giles, a pseudonym of Ray Foster, fills this book with a plot that twists and turns as it races to its conclusion. His writing, at times, is very visual and I could easily see this as a film. Death doesn’t say much and when he does it’s often one-liners in the form of gallows humour. There’s plenty of action, often quite cold-blooded, as lawmen and outlaws band together to take on Death, and for Willard Dull there’s the tormenting question of why does Death seem familiar to him?

If you can find a copy of this book then read it. Definitely one of the best BHW I’ve read.