Blood River

By Will Black

Crowood Press, August 2017

Gold was becoming harder to find as panners by the hundreds swarmed to any site where even the smallest nugget was found. One mine was still operating north of the Sierra Nevadas. And that was the problem. Transporting the gold down narrow, sandy, and rocky trails, wagons were easy targets for outlaws.

The Pinkerton Agency was charged with the security of a large haul of gold. But they had a daring plan. If it worked, 500 gold bars would make it East. If it failed, all was lost. Unknown to them, the Greeley gang had inside knowledge of their plan and were intent of stealing the gold.

At any cost.

I really enjoyed the last Will Black book I read, Death Comes Easy, so I was looking forward to this one and it more than matched the entertainment value of that previous story.

Will Black has a knack for creating interesting characters and plunging them into ingenious plots, and the plan that the Pinkerton’s have come up with is as fantastic as it could be foolhardy. The method of transporting the gold containing many edge of the seat moments.

The author regularly switches between the different groups of people fighting for possession of the gold as he tells his story that is filled with danger, double-cross, gunplay and deadly weather, before everything comes to a nail-biting and satisfying climax that could see many more folk decide to help themselves to the gold, which adds even more problems for Sheriff Brad Morgan to deal with.

Will Black is a pseudonym used by Adam Smith, and on the strength of this book, and others I’ve read by him, he has firmly established himself as one of my favourite Black Horse Western writers. 

Death Comes Easy

By Will Black

Hale, January 2015

Latham Parry is hell-bent on revenge: to ruin the man he holds responsible for his brother’s death.

Mitch Evans rides into town in search of his own brother, only to discover that he has been burned to death, and that his young wife and child have died trapped in the root cellar of their home.

Two men, both thinking they have right on their side, but only one will survive as death comes easy in the West.

Will Black also includes greed as a motive for killing, and combined with the twin story threads of revenge makes this book a gripping fast paced read.

Filled with many terrific characters, including strong female roles, that Black keeps switching between regularly the reader witnesses how plans fall apart far too easily as it’s almost impossible to second-guess what your adversaries will do in response to your actions. This makes for some edge-of-the-seat reading as you have to wonder if anyone will be able to get anywhere in time to save more senseless killings.

Will Black is a pseudonym used by Adam Smith and over the years he has put out many Black Horse Westerns under a variety of pen-names. I’ve always enjoyed his well-thought out plots, his visually descriptive narrative - that can at times be quite gruesome, all mixed with plenty of gunplay. If you’ve never read anything by this author then Death Comes Easy is an excellent place to start.

Blood Money

By D.D. Lang

Hale, July 2013

What made saloonkeeper Wilbur Enright so eager to get his hands on the keys to the bank’s safe, after the disappearance of the Sheriff, Clint West? With Luther Parry, the assistant bank manager, and his wife, Lucy, also missing, and three dangerous-looking strangers new in town, serious trouble threatens.

But one of the strangers, Dale Smith, is on the trail of the missing three, and the good people of Springfield are in for a long tough ride if peace is to be restored…

Murder, bank robbery, kidnapping, ambush, flash flood, gunfights, and more, all in the name of greed and ambition, keeps this story galloping forwards at a breathless pace. Most of the characters caught up in the various dangerous situations are unaware of other deadly events involving friends, those they are trying to rob, or have killed. All trails are on a collision course that brings everything to a violent conclusion.

The story throws many questions at its well-drawn characters, switching between them more or less scene by scene, chapter by chapter. As the plot becomes more involved you’ll find yourself wondering who is going to come out victorious…even the three strangers, planning a crime of their own, will have you hoping they survive.

This is the first book by D.D. Lang I’ve read, although I have read one other by the same author writing under one of his other pseudonyms. It also seems this author dropped out of sight for a number of years, and on the strength of this book, and the previous one I’ve read, this is a very welcome return, and looking through Hale’s future publications it seems there are more of this authors books to come, something I am very much looking forward to.