October 19, 2011 – 1:11 am
This book written by Terrell L Bowers is a western with a little bit of romance thrown in to keep the reader on his toes. Cullen Lomax is taking a vacation from what he really does but the handy man job for the Melbourne ranch is much more complicated than he originally thought it would be. It was a definitely slower pace than what he was use to. Having to but up with a mother and daughter as they continued an on going argument was almost beyond his peaceful nature. If the daughter hadn’t been so attractive he probably would given up the job and moved to quieter pastures.
Things of an unusual nature began to happen. A rancher is gunned down in cold blood for no apparent reason. Cullen finds himself a target in an ambush. The confusion on why he was targeted has him completely buffaloed. An unusual out break of fever in two herds of cattle in the valley creates confusion. The loose of over a thousand head of cattle places two ranches in financial trouble. The arranged marriage of Victoria Melbourne is a pot about to boil over and not a good situation. Before Cullen can evaluate and solve the pressing problems Victoria is kidnapped. Being a man use to action Cullen knows the only way to save her is to put his life on the line. This action could most certainly get him killed in the process. This was not Cullen’s idea of a vacation and things were getting worse by the hour. The story has the reader guessing at every turn as to who really are the bad guys and who is doing the directing of the kidnappers and shooters.
I recommend this book to all readers and I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did. The author has done a masterful job of keeping the suspense high and moving toward the stories climax. This is a definite must read.
October 12, 2011 – 1:11 am
This is a new author for me, Peter Dawson, and I was pleased by his effort. The story circles around Frank Rivers a pardoned murderer. After spending four years in the state penitentiary he was exonerated. His alibi witness was finally uncovered and the truth about where he was at the time of the murder came out. The governor pardoned Frank Rivers on the conviction of murder. Not everyone accepted this pardon at face value. The sheriff of Ute Springs the cousin of the driver of the stagecoach that was robbed and kicked into a wheelchair bound invalid was one of the doubters. The sheriff was unable to accept the reality of the pardon. Frank was continuing his search for the killers and robbers of the stage, a carpenter with a limp and his partner. These two men had stolen not only the money but killed his father and cast the blame of the murder and robbery on him.
The plot thickens as Frank tries to leave Ute Springs but is accused of cutting Beavertail fence and working as a hired gun for the Anchor ranch. The accusation at his camp fire is followed by a long distance shot that kills his accuser and puts Frank right in the middle of a potential range war. The sheriff is hard pressed to believe his story but with the collaboration of the owners of the Anchor ranch he accepts the story. The villain suspects that Frank knows more than he does and begins to plot different ways to remove him from the area forever. The plan backfires and Frank Rivers goes to work for the Anchor and defuses a range war with quick judgment and sound logic as he helps move the cattle to market. The story has many interesting twists and turns as it moves to its conclusion.
The story is a definitely good western with all the action and suspense and mystery to keep the reader turning the pages and not wanting to put it down until the story is finished. I recommend this western to all readers of good books as it will cement your belief that there are many well written westerns still to be read.
October 5, 2011 – 1:11 am
This is a western story written by William W. Johnstone with the able assistance of J.A. Johnstone there fourth book together . This tale is about a town and the marshal who helped forge and protect it even though he is young. He is able to help claim this piece of ground and wrestle it away from the Apache Indians and protect it form surrounding problems. With the town basically secured a new threat arrives in the form of a gunman who has bloody hands, from California. He is seeking a new life but his old life is drawing more bad elements into the town of Fury, Arizona.
The bad elements arrive into town seeking the demise of Jonas Lynch, the California gunman. Marshal Jason Fury feels the responsibility of keeping the peace but is fearful of being able to control and cap the raising potential of danger to himself and his town. The impending danger for the town and its occupants greatly increases as more men seeking the death of Jonas appear. The avenues of trouble appear to multiply and the outlook for personal danger increases daily. The Marshal arrives and some of the burden is released but things just seem to continue to multiply as more things come to the for-front.
This is an interesting story with many twists and turns. Some problems are solved by quirks of fate and others raise their heads and jump into the picture creating new problems and needs that call for solutions. I enjoyed this story and I feel confident that the readers of westerns will enjoy it too. The tale of this town will give you the reader a picture of how it was to have the everyday happenings in a western town and then recognize the potentials of the new problems as a single stranger enters it’s mist.
September 28, 2011 – 1:11 am
The story is by Tony Hillerman and performed by George Guidall. This is a mystery set in the southwest. The main character is Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navaho Tribal Police. Murder is the axe that swings and two Native American boys are the victims of the mayhem. One boy is a Zuni, Ernesto Cota, and his friend is a Navajo, George Bowlegs. The two boys disappear leaving only a pool of blood to large to think someone could have survived.
The factors that add to the complexity of the situation are the Zuni Religion, an archeological dig that would re-write history, FBI involvement, a hippy commune, drug trafficking, and the brutal nature of the murders. Leaphorn falls back on his time honed skill of tracking the various subjects. He is given the task of seeking out George Bowlegs after Ernesto’s body is discovered. It is very difficult for Leaphorn to believe that the friends had had a falling out and Bowlegs had murdered Ernesto. The tracking continued and a new mystery unfolds as Leaphorn is shot with a tranquilizer dart and almost looses his life.
This story has all of the ingredients of a murder mystery that would stump the most competent detective. The character of Leaphorn is not normal in that he is more than competent and a totally through investigator. The mystery is solved and the reader is hooked on the character of Lt. Joe Leaphorn as he steadily moves forward in the investigation.
I highly recommend all of Tony Hillerman’s writings as a must read. Take your time because he has left us and is writing no more but we all can continue to enjoy his writings. Proceed at our own speed, but you need to read his works so search your library and used bookstores for his books.
September 21, 2011 – 1:11 am
This is a book thirteen written by Ralph Compton in a series on Trail Drives. Two separate ranches have heard the news that gold is discovered in the Black Hills. The miners are starving for beef and winter is coming. Nelson Story from Montana and his ranch are sending horses to the Army and Nelson allows his hands that have been paid in cattle to cull their herds and put their cattle together so they can get some cash money. Benton McCaleb and the Lone Star Ranch from Wyoming are driving cattle to the gold field also. Both men were galvanized into action with the potential of fifty dollar a head beef in Deadwood South Dakota.
Both trail herd crews are made up of women, men, Indians and lovesick cowboys. This mix is one of the most volatile combinations that could possibly be thrown together. With the trail leading through the Sioux and Crow territories just miles away from where Custer was to be soon massacred what a potential for disaster. Things do not start out smooth and they go down hill from there. Stampedes, horse theft, and a multitude of other troubles sum up the problems in store for both trail herds. The reader is confronted with a story that has two drives heading in the same direction that will ultimately be in conflict with each other. Who will get the top price for the cattle and what will happen to the runner up? Both trail drives do not know that the other herd is there, but a hidden wild card is playing them both.
The potential for trouble is increased as both drives near the end of the trail but the wrinkles of the story do not shake out until the last few pages. I recommend this book to all western readers as they will appreciate the happenings and complexities that unfold as they read two stories in one story. I enjoyed the book and I will have to search out the other books in the series to see if they are as good as this one.
September 14, 2011 – 1:11 am
This is a new story involving two characters that have been previously written about in a book called “Sidewinders”. The two characters are Scratch Morton and Bo Creel, they are drifting across the western landscape getting into various adventures risking their lives on many occasions. William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone collaborated on this western tale that unfolds in the country surrounding Deadwood, South Dakota in the Black Hills.
A band of outlaws have been on a mission to rob all the gold shipments that are trying to get to the bank or out of the area. Their success has crippled the mining community causing a veil of terror to descend over the area and a mystique about the robbers who have gained the title of Deadwood Devils. They earned this moniker by carving a devils pitchfork on the foreheads of all their victims. No one has survived their attacks until Bo and Scratch make a successful gold run to the bank. By joining forces with an equally old wagon driver as they search for where the outlaws have their hideout and who is really in control of this rouge band of devils. The military arrives in the form of a platoon of cavalry. They are almost totally eliminated, in short order, as they are cut to shreds, by the outlaws who take advantage of a rooky first lieutenant. He was trying to make a name for himself by eliminating this band of outlaws.
Many things happen and as Bo, Scratch, Chloride and the Army close in, the confusion and action moves to a level above most westerns and then there is a twist that surprises all of the people involved. This new story has some original patterns for typical westerns as the author introduces an event that is not expected and is able to carry the reader to the end of the story. I am recommending this book to all readers. I suggest that the western readers enjoy the new wrinkles that the author has inserted into the story process to get us all entangled in the happenings of the story. I certainly enjoyed the new way to hook the reader into the story.
September 13, 2011 – 2:10 pm
My son got married and this post didn’t happen.
September 6, 2011 – 1:11 am
This is unusual but I have here a western story that disappointed me. The story has three man characters Falcon MacCallister, Buffalo Bill Cody and Means to His Horses a Cheyenne Chief. Being such a fan of all western writings I am struggling with the reason why this story failed to win me over. The rule of a number of book bloggers, is if the story doesn’t grab you in the first fifty pages you put it away and go on to another book. My personal problem is that when I have invested my time on the first fifty pages I feel compelled to finish the book so that I can reasonable find the factors that lead me to not like the book or get immersed in it.
The story, Massacre of Eagles, is based on an actual event and the story is built around that event and pushed on to a conclusion. This process has worked for me in the past but it was way to disconnected in this instance to get me hooked. The true event didn’t push me to be involved in the happenings or to produce a viable story for me. I do not claim to be a sophisticated reader but still I am one who likes a believable story and one that gets me mentally involved in the tale. This would let me see the actual events unfolding in front of my eyes with out having me to reach for conclusions.
Let me reintegrate again that I was disappointed in the authors attempt at getting a real story from a news paper article in a New York Register Journal: Ghastly Raids Against Innocent Families The cause was a new Indian religion that was called ‘Spirit Talking”. My recommendation would initially to skip this book but maybe you should actually read the story and review in your own mind the validity of this particular tale. The reader should always decide what he or she reads.
August 31, 2011 – 1:11 am
I have always wondered why the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone Arizona was such a big and publicized clash. In this book by Jeff Guinn he highlights the days leading up to and threw the event that went on to change the western landscape into a picture that I could see and better understand. All of the potentially bad things shown in man were singled out in the explanations and visions presented by Jeff Guinn. Criminals were visibly involved, egos were bruised and battered, ambition and the rivalry of factions along with individuals exploded on the streets of Tombstone. Both sides felt that they were right but as it turns out both were flawed. Men both good and bad would not back down they would rather fight and die before conceding to the opposition.
The Last Gunfight turns the wind against the smoke, dust and myth that has always hidden the facts of why it happened and the real reasons of why it was shrouded in the context of western pop culture. The true make up of the Earp clan along with Doc Holiday facing up to the opposing faction the Cowboys presents to the reader a new way of viewing the event. The reader can now look at why and how this event changed the way we viewed the west. The true conflict was between wealth and town people facing the independent and strong minded small ranch owners not good against evil.
I recommend this book to readers who want to get a new and clearer picture of what happened and why it happened on the afternoon in the streets of Tombstone Arizona October 26,1881.
August 24, 2011 – 1:11 am
Matt Braun takes a true historical happening and generates a real western story that will captivate the reader. How can I keep telling you that this author has grasped the essence of western stories that have happened all across the western landscape?
This story begins with Mike McCluskie showing up in Newton Kansas as railroad security guard. His arrival is secret but he is there to secure the site for a large shipment of gold. His arrival and purpose is a sign to anyone looking that something big is going to happen shortly. Mike surveys the town and tries to get a handle on all of the players.
The shipment arrives in the middle of the night and out of the dark a shadowy figure emerges from one of the cars. Mike assumes the worst and attacks the shadow and finds out it is an emaciated boy who has stolen a ride on the rails. He is severely beaten by Mike and he needs immediate care. Mike feels responsible and steps forward. The boy who has TB is not expected to live and the drama continues as he struggles from his beating, from Mike. The consumption that has been tapping out his stamina and wearing him down to a mere whisper of his former self. The drama plays out and he is getting better but not expected to live.
Mike finds out his name is Kinch Riley and he begins to follows Mike all around. He is continually watching and learning the skills of a man in railroad security. The use of a gun is a major factor and Mike practices every day. Kinch is copying everything Mike does or thinks about doing. Kinch helps Mike in his duties and things were stringing along just like they were father and son. Mike imparted all of the codes that he lives by and Kinch seemed to write them permanently in his mind.
The story continues to move toward the shoot out and as it does I became more engrossed in the story and could not put the book down until I had completed it. I recommend this story told by Matt Braun as one that will hook you in the beginning and keep you going until the final sentence.
