LUCK OF THE DRAW

FARO BLAKE

Number 2 of 31

By Zeke Masters

Pocket Books, June 1980

Between the whores and the hell-raisers in the boomtown of Abilene, Faro Blake’s nightly game at the Texas Rose was thriving. But when a greedy trail boss used the business end of a gun to relieve Faro of his take, it seemed like a good time to hit the trail.

Trouble is, the trail he hit, hit back – dropping him by turns off the back of a moving train, into a camp of Comancheros, under the thumb of a crooked marshal and into a no-holds-barred love tussle with a beautiful, brutal lady jailer.

It would take a tornado to blow Faro out of this one. No problem. Kansas is tornado country, ain’t it?

Zeke Masters’ Faro Blake is another of the many adult western series that came out during the latter 1970’s and the 1980’s. Like the majority of them, the authors’ name is a pseudonym and I believe the person writing behind the pen-name for this book was Donald R. Bensen. 

I found this book to be a fast, easy read. The straight-forward plot sees Blake getting into all kinds of scrapes which eventually lead to him going undercover to try and discover the whereabouts of some stolen gold. Blake seems to have an easy-come, easy-go attitude to life, which is why he is content to accept having his winnings stolen from him at the beginning and having no desire to track down the thief. This outlook on life makes him standout from other western heroes who would be hell-bent on retrieving their stolen property and making the thief pay the hard way. 

Blake’s anger does rise as the story progresses as he gets battered and bruised, used and abused, before being chained up in a dank underground cell at the mercy of the beautiful jailer mentioned above. How to escape her clutches soon becomes his one-and-only goal. This all leads to one hell of a final battle as all the different sides arrive at the small Inn Blake is being held captive at. I’m not sure why the blurb mentions a tornado as there isn’t one in the story, perhaps it’s referencing the frantic gunfight that brings the story to a close?

Being an adult western series, the book does contain some graphic sex, but this doesn’t take up too much of the story. Although Blake beds most of the women he meets the author only uses one or two paragraphs to describe these scenes. There is one such encounter that takes up more of the story, lasting for a couple pages, so these parts are easy to skip if you so desire.

There are some interesting comparisons to the real-life tale of the Benders as travellers vanish when visiting the inn. The beautiful jailer is called Kate, although her family name is Crakes. The crooked marshal is named Bender, as are the majority of people living in the nearby town of Bendersville. Setting the story in Kansas also provides another link to the family of serial killers.

Overall, a found this to be an entertaining book and I’m sure I will read more of this series somewhere down the line.

The Big Gamble

FARO BLAKE #1:

By Zeke Masters

Pocket Books, June 1980

As a wet-behind-the-ears kid, Faro Blake had learned every trick of the gambler’s trade from his father, A.B. Blake, the last, great survivor of the Natchez Cleanout.

Soon enough, whether his clever hands were closing around a gun, a deck of cards or a beautiful lady, Faro moved with a smooth grace that always put him on top and riding easy.

But now his father was dead – a victim of lynch-mob justice – and Faro was in a game he had to win…a game where deadly killers made the rules, where a warm and willing woman sweetened the pot, and vengeance – or death – would be the last, big prize.

The early 80’s saw a flood of adult westerns hit the shelves and the Faro Blake series was one of those. A new book was published every other month and this series reached 31 books. Not sure how many different authors wrote under the pseudonym of Zeke Masters but I believe just under a third of the series was written by Donald R. Bensen, and this one was one of those.

Like the first story in any series this one fills the reader in on Faro Blake’s background and also introduces two characters that will return in many of the books that follow; namely Nell Garvin and Doc Prentiss, the latter being a confidence man who aids Faro in his hours of need.

Faro only really has one aim in this story and that’s to get revenge for his father’s death, his intention being to kill the two men he holds responsible, but achieving this isn’t a straightforward as he hopes.

The story also contains some light-hearted moments as Faro aids a preacher to break the Commandments, which often results in comical outcomes. Why the preacher wants to do this you’ll have to find out for yourself.

My final thoughts on this book is that it proved to be an entertaining read that left me keen to read the next in the series sometime soon.