Review: The Gunsmith #491: Invitation to a Bank Robbery - J.R. Roberts (Robert J. Randisi)

I remember quite vividly picking up the first book in a new Western series called The Gunsmith at a newsstand on the west side of Fort Worth more than forty years ago. The book was called MACKLIN’S WOMEN, and the author was J.R. Roberts. However, I already knew that J.R. Roberts was really Robert J. Randisi because Bob and I were already friends through correspondence and the occasional phone call. He had sent me a copy of his first novel, the private eye yarn THE DISAPPEARANCE OF PENNY, and I enjoyed it so I was eager to read his first Western. MACKLIN’S WOMEN didn’t disappoint me. As always with Bob’s work, it was dialogue-driven and very fast-paced, and it was written in first person, a refreshing change from most other Western series. (Only the first dozen or so books are in first person. I read and enjoyed all of them as they came out.)

Well, most of you know what happened. The Gunsmith went on to become a huge success as one of the so-called Big Four Adult Western series (the others being Longarm, Slocum, and The Trailsman), running for more than forty years and four hundred novels. Unlike the others, The Gunsmith was a creator-owned series and didn’t belong to the publishing company, so when it was canceled at Penguin along with the others, Bob was able to take it elsewhere and continue writing new entries. The Gunsmith rolled along for several more years, a new book every month like clockwork, before health issues slowed down Bob’s production. But he continued writing Gunsmith novels.

Bob passed away last fall, after what appears will be the final Gunsmith novel, INVITATION TO A BANK ROBBERY, was published last summer. Since I read the first book all those years ago, I realized I ought to read the last one, as well, even though I’m nowhere close to reading the entire series.

As this book begins, Clint Adams, the gunfighter and adventurer known as The Gunsmith, arrives in the small town of Kennelworth, Utah, looking for what he always seeks: a little peace and quiet. You know, of course, that’s not going to happen, and before you know it, Clint has been invited to turn outlaw and join in a bank robbery being planned by a couple of would-be crooks. Things get a lot more complicated than that as the plot races along. There are shootouts and beautiful women and double-crosses and a very effective twist ending. It’s highly entertaining, as the Gunsmith books always are. This was one of my father’s favorite series, and as he told me once, “You know you’re always going to have a good time reading a Gunsmith book.”

It's clear that this wasn’t intended to be the final Gunsmith novel. The title of the next one planned for the series can be found at the end. However, without getting into spoiler territory, as this book draws to a close, Clint Adams is contemplating making a change in his life, and although this is complete speculation, I think Bob may have figured the next book would be the last one. As is, the series draws to a satisfactory conclusion, and reading it is certainly a bittersweet experience for me. Too many good friends and good writers have been lost to us too early, and Bob Randisi falls into both those categories. If you’re a fan of his work, I give INVITATION TO A BANK ROBBERY a high recommendation. It’s available on Amazon in e-book and paperback editions, as are most of the other books in the series, almost 500 of them!

Bolt #1: First Blood - Cort Martin (Jory Sherman)

It had been quite a while since I read an Adult Western. Finding myself in the mood for one, I picked up BOLT #1: FIRST BLOOD by Cort Martin. The Eighties were really the heyday of the Adult Western with dozens of different series on the paperback racks, including this one that ran for 26 books, all published by Zebra, from 1981 to 1988.

Jared Bolt is the protagonist of this series, and as the first book opens in 1870 he’s only eighteen years old. But he’s already involved with an older girl (22), meeting her regularly for romps in the hayloft, and when she turns up pregnant, she wants him to marry her. Bolt, who isn’t a very sympathetic protagonist, wants nothing to do with that, so he runs away from home (which is Ellsworth, Kansas), earning the enmity of the girl, her father, his own preacher father, and his strait-laced older brother.

When we meet Bolt again, five years have passed. He’s become a cowboy and picked up some skills at gun handling, and he still beds every woman who’ll give him the time of day, married or single. He and a friend are driving a small herd of cattle north from Texas, intending to sell them in Kansas. Bolt gets involved with a married woman along the way and kills her husband in self-defense when the man comes after him. The guy abuses his wife, so Bolt doesn’t come off as a total jerk in this situation. The dead man also has a father who’s a judge and a brother who’s a marshal, so Bolt is in for more trouble from them. His older brother is still on his trail, too.

That’s pretty much all the plot we get in this book, various people chasing Bolt and him trying to survive, but since Cort Martin was really Jory Sherman, FIRST BLOOD is well-written and most of the characters have at least some complexity and depth. Jared Bolt, despite his moral failings, still manages to be likable somehow. The numerous action scenes are excellent.

I recall Jory saying that while he wrote this book and the contracts for all the others were in his name, his wife Charlotte actually ghosted the rest of the series. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I enjoyed FIRST BLOOD enough that I intend to read at least the second one and see if I can tell any difference in the writing. I used to have the entire series in paperback, but those copies were lost in the Fire of ’08. Luckily, e-book editions of this and all the others are available on Amazon. If you’re an Adult Western fan, I think the Bolt series is worth checking out.