Riders West

THE STORMS #3

By Matt Chisholm

Piccadilly Publishing, June 2013

First published by Mayflower, 1971

Having quit Civil War devastated Texas, the Storm family – father, mother, three sons, two daughters – found their promised land in Colorado. But Colorado was then the American West’s furthest frontier, rich in fertile land but dangerously short on law and order. There were wild animals and Indians – but wildest of all were the desperadoes on the lookout for easy pickings …

Colorado’s Three Creeks country was a hard land indeed, where the strong took whatever they wanted to satisfy their greed and the weak were gunned down if they got in the way. Ed Brack ruled supreme in this brutal territory, thinking he could scare the Storm family off. But the Storms didn’t scare easy. They stood their ground. So the cattle king burned their house… and took their women.

Mild Will Storm, his brother Mart and black Joe Widbee saddled and rode against Brack, guns in their hands and a murderous hatred in their hearts …

Matt Chisholm almost gives this book a light-hearted tone to begin with. There’s the believable feeling of joy and anticipation of finding a new place to settle down and that of family love, of sticking together no matter what. But I did say almost, for Chisholm also includes hints to the harshness of the land and then there’s the hanging man and the questions this discovery brings such as who was he and why was he killed this way?

There are other questions too, such as can the Storms settle on their chosen spot successfully? Does someone else claim the land? It’s the latter that leads to dispute with Ed Brack and this soon turns violent and the Storms decide to take the battle to the rancher. This is where the story takes on a darker tone and becomes a long struggle to stay alive.

Matt Chisholm (real name Peter Watts) really excels when it comes to writing action scenes, he creates tension well and you can never be sure just who will come out of any exchange of gunfire in one piece, be they good or bad. It’s this uncertainty of whether Chisholm’s characters will survive that give his stories a hard edge of reality and make his books such gripping reads.

For anyone reading this series Riders West is a must read as it sets up some situations that will play important parts in coming books and I’m sure it won’t be too long before I read the next one, One Notch to Death.

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The Storm Family Saga #2

HARD TEXAS TRAIL

By Matt Chisholm

Panther, 1971

Eight young men rode homewards, home to Texas, across the rolling Kansas plains – right through the heart of Indian country. It didn’t worry them. Then they rescued a beautiful girl from the Indians. And that meant they also had to take on the ruthless killers who’d trailed her from the East.

But Clay Storm wanted this woman. Wanted her bad enough to face a vicious shoot-out with the killers. The showdown came in a grim contest of guns, wits and courage where Death was the only judge…

This is the second of a nine book series written by English author Peter Watts under the pseudonym of Matt Chisholm, an author perhaps better known for his McAllister series.

Hard Texas Trail is a well written, fast moving, traditional western that is all action from the opening page to the last. It is a well told story that holds the readers attention with ease. This book once more shows that one of Peter Watts greatest strengths is his ability to create believable characters. People who are flawed, make mistakes, that see them finding themselves in very dangerous situations from which very few – including the heroes – come out in one piece, if indeed they do manage to escape death. They are tough men and women who don’t back down even if the odds are against them.

The Storm series sees a different member of the family being the focus of each book, each tale being a self-contained story that links with previous books. For instance this tale was set up at the end of the first in the series, and takes place shortly after that book.

Perhaps not the best book I’ve read carrying the Matt Chisholm name, but certainly not the worst. Hard Texas Trail should appeal to all who like tough tales about hard men, where you know good will win over evil, yet you are never quite sure as to who will be left alive, on either side, at the end.

The Storm Family Saga #1

STAMPEDE

as by Matt Chisholm

Panther, 1970

The Civil War was over. The South, and Texas, had lost. The losers were destitute and without hope.

Then Will Storm got word of a possible deal at Abilene railhead a thousand miles north in Kansas. On a shoestring, he gathered himself a bare handful of greenhorn riders, whipped his all-wild mustangs into the semblance of cow ponies, his half-wild steers into the semblance of a herd, and headed north for Kansas.

A few days out, the mother of all thunderstorms dispersed the maddened cattle. They rounded them up. Then a band of amateur rustlers tried their hand – and badly burnt their fingers. Three dead and the rest of them on the run. The Red River was in furious spate. They got across without losing a steer. Indian country of sinister reputation lay ahead. They paid the old chief a toll of ten cows and went through like a dream.

At last the Kansas line and Abilene is only a few days ahead. Then…trouble came; very quietly, and terribly…

Matt Chisholm is really English author Peter Watts, a writer who I enjoy very much. Having already read four books from this nine book series I looked forward to reading ‘the beginning’.

Stampede is pretty much your usual cattle-drive tale but well written with plenty of pace and thrills filled with courage and grim tenacity that builds up to a twist ending, which leads to the family members heading off in different directions thus setting up the storylines for the following books.

Definitely worth picking up if you can find a copy.