Lonesome Range

By Tyler Hatch

A Black Horse Western from Hale, June 2011

He had many names – but only one told who he really was – the fastest gun in Texas, Colorado or just about anywhere. Sometimes he was recognized, no matter what the name and then the challengers would come, guns would blaze and he’d ride away from yet another dead man.

Then came the day where he’d killed one too many and the fastest gun had to swap his colt for a sledge on the rockpile – for ten long years.

He wasn’t ready to give up just yet though – and when a chance for freedom came along, he was prepared to grab it with both hands….

The above blurb has all taken place before the beginning of this book, and the reader meets the man as he struggles to survive a desert crossing. It’s here he finds himself siding a small rancher against a much larger one. Even though the story has a backdrop of a range war the main plot is about the identity of the man, and once this is found out it’s how he deals with more people gunning for him. The mystery gunman having to not only deal with the land-hungry rancher, but treachery from his own side, and a vengeance hungry daughter of one of the men he killed a long time ago.

The story is extremely fast paced and packed with action that is quite brutal at times. The odds against the survival of the man makes for gripping reading and you have to wonder if this is one anti-hero that won’t be alive by the books end.

Having read many books by this author – Tyler Hatch being one of a number of pseudonyms used by Keith Hetherington – I knew I’d be in for a cracking read and that’s exactly what I got. If you’ve never read one of Keith’s many books then this could be a great place to introduce yourself to this writer’s talents.

Lonesome Range is officially released tomorrow but is already for sale at the usual Internet bookstores.

Trailsman #356

GRIZZLY FURY

By Jon Sharpe

Signet, June 2011

The Northern Rockies, 1861 – where fang and claw make a feast of human flesh.

Skye Fargo has faced killers of every shape and size. But when a monstrous grizzly outside Gold Creek starts splitting people’s skulls and feasting on the gray matter, Fargo finds himself pitted against a bloodthirsty beast that has already slaughtered and devoured everyone who tried to hunt it down. And the Trailsman might be next on the menu.

Unlike the majority of Trailsman books, this one sees Skye Fargo pitted against a foe that isn’t human. Yes there are one or two humans to deal with, as there is competition with others eager to claim the bounty for being the person who kills the grizzly known as Brain Eater, but the book is mainly about the hunt for this creature.

Fargo teams up with a great group of people, each being a superb character in their own rights, none of which this reader wanted to see die, yet this being a Trailsman book some, if not all, would surely fall prey to the grizzly wouldn’t they?

Having such a dangerous, and hard to kill, creature stalking its hunters, makes for some tense and breath-holding scenes. This definitely ensures the reader won’t be putting the book down before these gripping sequences are played out.

Descriptions paint vivid images within the mind, be they of the landscape these deadly games of death take place in, or the graphic accounts of the grizzly’s killings.

To balance the more horrific elements of the tale, the author, David Robbins writing as Jon Sharpe, includes some humour, mainly through dialogue, that at times had me laughing out loud.

So, once more, we have a well-told, fast moving, action-packed, Trailsman story in Grizzly Fury, and as I’ve said the theme of this tale makes it that little bit different from other entries in this long running series.

Wyoming Double-Cross

By J.D. Kincaid

A Black Horse Western from Hale, June 2011

When the notorious Blair Wilton and his gang of outlaws decide to raid the bank at Medicine Bow, they send in Chicago confidence trickster Paul Springer to reconnoitre the town. Here a chance encounter with an old acquaintance from the windy city causes Springer to change his plans suddenly.

To add to the outlaws’ woes, Jack Stone, the famous Kentuckian gunfighter, enters into the fray and goes up against Wilton and his gang.

Will it be Stone or Wilton who survives the final, deadly confrontation?

This is the latest adventure in J.D. Kincaid’s popular series featuring gunfighter Jack Stone. I’m not sure if all the books put out under the J.D. Kincaid pseudonym are Stone stories, but the majority are.

Like the previous Stone book I read the gunfighter doesn’t actually appear in the story for quite a while, and once he does it’s only for brief moments until the last fourth of the story. J.D. Kincaid uses the rest of the book to outline his plot, introduce his well- crafted characters and develop the relationships between them all.

Springer is a great character, one who will have you guessing as to just what his intentions are, it’s his plans that the title comes from, but he’s not the only one who is planning a double-cross. Another memorable character is Kid Sawyer who first appears in chapter one and then isn’t mentioned for a long time, yet he remains in the readers mind, and the author makes you wait before re-introducing him again.

J.D. Kincaid’s books are easy, fast reads, full of action, that leave me looking forward to the next. The authors’ real name is James C. Dalgleish, but whether he writes under any other pseudonyms I have no idea.

Wyoming Double-Cross is officially released on June 30^th, but is available now from the usual Internet bookstores.

Shotgun Messenger

By Colin Bainbridge

A Black Horse Western from Hale, June 2011

The outlaw’s first mistake was shooting the dog. That dog belonged to Rhett Coulter and he wasn’t a man to mess with, as Lorne Roberts and his gang of gunslicks would soon discover.

Meanwhile, Coulter’s friend’s ranch, the Block H, is burned down and his woman barely escapes with her life. Now he has another reason to want to put Roberts out of business, quite apart from the little matter of his hoard of stolen bullion.

As Coulter fights against overwhelming odds, events hurtle along like a runaway stagecoach towards the final, blistering showdown….

If it’s a book packed with action you want then you need look no further than Colin Bainbridge’s third Black Horse Western. The story seems to be pretty much one exchange of gunfire, or fists, after another. This is all interspersed with the good guys attempting to second-guess the next moves of the bad guys, including trying to work out their motives. The latter leading to many questions such as are there more than one band of outlaws at work here, and just who is the mysterious Reber – an outlaw leader people have heard about but never seen? So the book contains plenty of mystery within its fast moving plot too.

Colin Bainbridge writes long chapters, this book having only six. Descriptions of landscapes, buildings, and people are sparse and to the point. There isn’t any bad language as far as I remember.

Shotgun Messenger is an entertaining read that is officially released at the end of the month but is available now from the usual Internet bookstores.

Cotton's War

By Phil Dunlap

Berkley, June 2011

As sheriff of Catron County in New Mexico Territory, Cotton Burke has put his life on the line against some of the West’s most unrepentant outlaws. Like Virgil Cruz – who’s kidnapped the woman Cotton loves and threatens to kill her should the lawman attempt to interfere with his gang’s schemes.

Memphis Jack Stump used to wear a badge and uphold justice until one drink too many cost him his job – and his friendship with Cotton. But he’s the only man Cotton trusts enough to infiltrate Cruz’s gang as a hired gun and help take them down from the inside before the bandit enacts a terrible revenge…

In some ways this is an old-fashioned traditional western, but that is not a criticism. In fact some readers will welcome this, as the book contains very little bad language, no explicit sex or graphic violence of the kind that can be found in many other westerns being written today.

Cotton’s War is billed as the first in a new series (the second book, Cotton’s Law, is due out in January 2012) so it seems as if Sheriff Cotton Burke is the main hero of the books, but in this one he plays more of a secondary role, being used to set events in motion and as a link between various characters. The lead is taken by Jack Stump, and he makes for a very memorable reluctant hero, one I hope will return in further books.

Phil Dunlap tells his story from the viewpoints of a variety of characters, moving from one to another chapter by chapter or scene by scene, that often end with a cliff-hanger, ensuring the book is difficult to put down before the end is reached. This makes for a fast flowing story that keeps the reader gripped with the need to know what happens next.

Phil Dunlap is a new author to me, even though he has had a number of westerns published by Avalon and one or two by Leisure, and this book has left me wanting to check out his other work whilst patiently waiting for the publication of Cotton’s Law.

Ace High in Wilderness

By Rob Hill

A Black Horse Western from Hale, June 2011

It has been seven years since the Civil War ended. Ex-sharpshooter John Wright has tried to forget the horrors of his incarceration in the Confederate POW camp at Andersonville, where he watched, powerless, as one of the guards murdered his childhood friend.

Now, two ex-prisoners show up, telling John they have tracked down the murderous prison guard and need help bringing him in. They offer John a share of the reward. But all is not as it seems and John is about to find out that the road to justice is rocky indeed….

Rob Hill sure packs a lot into this book, each chapter seeming to add more problems for his hero to overcome. As well as the opportunity for revenge against the prison guard, there’s a bank robbery, a crooked sheriff, John’s woman’s ex-husband wanting his son, a jailbreak, a Sioux uprising, a town waiting to be massacred by the Indians, the army trying to keep a tight rein on everything, and a few other story threads too.

The story switches from one set of characters to another seamlessly, often leaving them with a problem to face, ensuring the reader keeps turning the pages. One can’t help but wonder how Wright can possibly come out of this in one piece and on the right side of the law, or even if he’ll be alive at the end.

As soon as you think you know how the story will turn out, Rob Hill adds another twist into his fast paced, action-packed tale, meaning his latest book is another gripping read. Once more leaving me looking forward to his next one.

Ace High in Wilderness is officially released on June 30^th, but it is already available through the usual Internet sources.

How many do you know?

How many of these actors or characters do you recognize?

Great song too, imho.