Gideon Hawk is a dedicated and highly competent lawman until a personal tragedy starts him on the vengeance trail. Frustration with a corrupt justice system turns him into a full-fledged vigilante who deals with lawbreakers on their own level. It would be easy, based on that description of the plot, to dismiss this book as Mack Bolan in the Old West, but it’s actually much more than that. With his sure-handed prose, Peter Brandvold creates a fast-paced, action-packed novel that also has a great deal of emotional depth.
It’s no coincidence that one of the characters in this novel is named DeRosso. At times in this bleak but compelling tale Brandvold almost seems to be channeling pulp and paperback author H.A. DeRosso, widely acclaimed as the master of Western noir. Brandvold has his own voice, though, influenced by comics, Spaghetti Westerns, and a strong grounding in traditional Western novels. His characters are sometimes bizarre but always well-drawn, so that even the most unsympathetic of them come across as human, and he writes great action scenes as well as having a heartbreakingly poignant touch with the quieter moments. This is a fine, fine book for readers who like their Westerns on the hardboiled side.
4 comments:
That's high praise indeed. I'll have to check it out. I wasn't familiar with author until now. Thanks James!
Lee Goldberg
Sounds great. I'll have to check it out as well. Blog on, MTMorgan
I'll have to drop by my local personal bookseller (Wal-Mart) today and see about getting a copy.
I've seen his books on my various book-hunting trips and thought about buying them, but wasn't sure there was any reason to add yet another author to my shamefully large backlog. You convinced me I'd like his work, so from now on I'll pick up whichever Brandvolds I come across. Like I need a larger TBR pile. Ah well, I'm sure I'll thank you for it some day.
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