Sundance #6: The Bronco Trail - John Benteen (Ben Haas)

I recently read a couple of books that weren’t terrible, but ultimately, they were disappointing and I wished I had the time back that I spent reading them. With that bad taste in my mouth, I wanted to read something that I was absolutely certain would entertain me and make me glad that I’d read it.

Enter Ben Haas.

Over the years I’ve read most of the books in the Fargo series that Haas wrote under the name John Benteen, but there are still quite a few of his Sundance series that I never got around to. The next one I hadn’t read was #6 THE BRONCO TRAIL. This one opens with Jim Sundance, the half-British, half-Cheyenne professional fighting man, hunting down an outlaw gang in Utah and dealing with them in an explosive confrontation. When Sundance reports to the Mormon leader who hired him, he finds an old friend waiting for him: General George Crook. Sundance has worked for the army before, and now Crook wants him to find out who’s trying to stir up a new war between the Apaches and the settlers in Arizona. And while he’s at it, if he can convince Geronimo and his followers, who have fled to the mountains in Mexico, to surrender and make peace, that would be great, too.

It’s a job that puts Sundance smack-dab in the middle of danger from several different sources: the criminal ring smuggling ammunition and whiskey to the Apaches, the Mexican army, and Geronimo his own self. In addition to Geronimo and General Crook, actual historical figures who play a part in the story include scouts Al Sieber and Tom Horn. As Haas explains in an afterword, nearly everything in the book except Sundance’s involvement is based on documented history. It’s interesting and very effective.

Of course, the biggest appeal of these novels is the action, and I’m convinced that except for Robert E. Howard, nobody was ever better at writing close combat action scenes than Ben Haas. Whether it’s a brutal fistfight, a deadly battle with knives, or a close-quarters shootout, Haas’s skill at describing these scenes is breathtaking. The story races along at a breakneck pace, the settings are vividly (but not long-windedly) described, and Sundance is a great protagonist, if a bit dour.

So I went into THE BRONCO TRAIL wanting a book that I would enjoy reading, and that’s exactly what I got. Copies of the original paperback (with a cover by Mel Crair) can be found on-line, and an e-book edition is available from Piccadilly Publishing. I give this one a high recommendation.