Bullet for a Virgin! - Peter Brandvold

Bestselling Western author Peter Brandvold has written his first original e-book, BULLET FOR A VIRGIN!, which is also the first in a series of novellas about the Rio Concho Kid. As this one opens the Kid, a drifting, half-Apache gunfighter wanted by the law in the States, is sitting in a cantina south of the border on a rainy night, hoping  to pass a few peaceful hours getting drunk. Instead, a beautiful redhead with three gunmen on her trail gallops up to the place, and against his better judgment, the Kid steps in to help her escape her pursuers.

From there the action hardly ever lets up. The redhead, Tomasina de la Cruz, is on the run from a vicious Mexican general who forced her to marry him, although the union has yet to be consummated (hence the title). Tomasina is trying to reach the man she really loves, and the Kid agrees to go with her on the journey and keep her safe. Complicating matters is El Leproso, the Leper, a deadly bounty hunter the general sends after them.

From its opening in the cantina to the final shootout in a graveyard with a nice twist ending, BULLET FOR A VIRGIN! is part pulp (you can tell Brandvold has read his share of stories from SPICY WESTERN), part Spaghetti Western, and pure entertainment. It's also very well-written. I've been saying for years that Brandvold is an absolute master at choosing just the right details to make a scene come alive, and he certainly does so in this book. I had a great time reading it, and if you enjoy action-packed Westerns, you need to check it out. By the way, the book is dedicated to me and Livia, but you can trust me on this: BULLET FOR A VIRGIN! is really good.