Review: Misfit Lil Robs the Bank - Chap O'Keefe (Keith Chapman)

I’m a long-time fan of the Misfit Lil series by Chap O’Keefe (who’s really our old friend, writer and editor Keith Chapman, of course), so it’s a real pleasure when I come across one that I haven’t read before. MISFIT LIL ROBS THE BANK was published originally in hardcover by Robert Hale as part of the Black Horse Westerns series in 2009. It was reprinted in a large print edition by Ulverscroft in 2010, and now it’s available again in e-book and paperback editions.

Lilian Goodnight’s friend and mentor, army scout Jackson Farraday, is out of town guiding a scientific expedition, so there’s no one around to provide wise counsel when Lil takes up with reckless, hotheaded cowboy Lucky M’Cline. Their misadventures get them in trouble with the law, and some of the upright citizens of Silver Vein, Utah (including a young woman who’s jealous because she thinks Lil took Lucky away from her) convince her father, rancher Ben Goodnight, to turn her over to the care of a French physician visiting the area, Dr. Francois Guiscard. Guiscard, you see, is famous for using hypnotism and other new-fangled treatments to cure females of hysteria and other psychological ailments. Dr. Guiscard, it is hoped, will be able to cure Lil of her troublemaking ways.

I think we all know what’s going to happen here. Guiscard isn’t the brilliant doctor he pretends to be, although he is a master hypnotist. Lil winds up in more trouble than ever and back behind bars, charged with bank robbery and murder. She and Lucky have to break out of jail and track down the real villain to clear Lil’s name.

One of the great things about Keith Chapman’s Westerns is that his writing has a distinctive voice. Nobody else would write these books exactly the way he does. As a result, he always comes up with great characters and plots that spin traditional elements in fresh and compelling ways. MISFIT LIL ROBS THE BANK races along in a fast, entertaining fashion, and I had a great time reading it. If you’re looking for an enjoyable, somewhat offbeat Western, I give it a high recommendation.

Review: Shootout at Hellyer's Creek - Chap O'Keefe (Keith Chapman)

SHOOTOUT AT HELLYER’S CREEK, recently reprinted in a new edition that’s available in e-book and paperback on Amazon, is the first novel in the Joshua Dillard series by one of my favorite Western writers, Chap O’Keefe (who is actually veteran author and editor Keith Chapman, of course).

In this novel, originally published in 1994 as a Black Horse Western by Robert Hale Ltd. in England, a stagecoach is on its way to the Arizona settlement of Hellyer’s Creek carrying three passengers and a very special cargo: $50,000 intended for the vault of the bank in Hellyer’s Creek. The passengers are a special agent for Wells, Fargo guarding the money, an English actress who’s married to the owner of the biggest saloon and gambling den in the settlement, and Clement P. Conway, a bespectacled Easterner better known as Nate Ironhorn, the author of dozens of popular Western dime novels who wants to interview the legendary lawman who’s currently the marshal of Hellyer’s Creek.

Not surprisingly, the stagecoach is ambushed by outlaws after the loot, which involves the rider who has been trailing the stage: Joshua Dillard, a former Pinkerton operative who is now a freelance gun for hire. Joshua is on a mission of his own, which he interrupts to save the passengers and help them escape from the bandits, which also brings into the story the tomboyish but beautiful redheaded daughter of a drunk who operates the next way station along the stage line. Eventually, everybody winds up in Hellyer’s Creek, trying to navigate and survive a twisty plot rife with corruption, betrayal, and violence.

As always, Chapman weaves together the various strands of his story with great skill and keeps the reader flipping the pages, eager to find out what’s going to happen next. The characters are colorful, downright eccentric in some cases, and interesting. Joshua Dillard, tough and smart but haunted by grief from a tragedy in his past, is a compelling and sympathetic protagonist.

As an added bonus in this book, Chapman includes an essay about the writing and original publication of this novel, including the fact that it wasn’t intended to be the first book in a series, but Joshua was too good a character not to bring back. Likewise, the young redheaded tomboy is a direct forerunner of Misfit Lil, the star of several later novels by Chapman and also a favorite of mine.

If you enjoy traditional Western novels that are fast-moving, full of action, and just a little offbeat, I give SHOOTOUT AT HELLYER’S CREEK a high recommendation, along with all the other Chap O’Keefe novels. I love a book with a distinctive, entertaining voice, and Keith Chapman always delivers.

Review: Misfit Lil Hides Out - Chap O'Keefe (Keith Chapman)

Misfit Lil returns in MISFIT LIL HIDES OUT, the fourth book in the excellent series by Chap O’Keefe (Keith Chapman). This one was published originally in hardback by Robert Hale in 2008, reprinted in large print by Ulverscroft in 2009, and now available in e-book and trade paperback editions. I always enjoy a visit with Misfit Lil, and this novel certainly lives up to expectations.

It begins on a rather grim note as a war party of renegade Apaches who have jumped the reservation massacre some settlers. Misfit Lil witnesses this atrocity and is able to help one of the potential victims, the wife of a soldier at the nearby fort, escape with her life.

This trouble brings a couple of obnoxious cavalry officers from back east to the fort. They’re there to take charge of the effort to round up the renegades, but instead, they quickly make enemies of some of the locals, including Lil. When one of them winds up dead, she’s blamed for the murder and has to take off for the badlands with both a sheriff’s posse and the cavalry in pursuit. Lil has to deal not only with those threats but also the Apaches, who are still on the loose and looking for more victims.

Chapman weaves these plot strands together with expert skill, leading to a final showdown that verges on the apocalyptic in its intense action. This is a great scene that also reveals a few surprising twists.

As a bonus, Chapman includes an article about female protagonists in Western fiction. Altogether, it makes for a very entertaining package and another outstanding adventure for the Princess of Pistoleers. If you’re a fan of traditional Westerns with a slightly gritty edge, you need to make the acquaintance of Miss Lilian Goodnight.

The Gunman and the Actress - Chap O'Keefe (Keith Chapman)

I’ve read several books featuring Chap O’Keefe’s range detective character Joshua Dillard and always enjoyed them. Dillard is a former Pinkerton agent who quit that agency after his wife’s murder at the hands of an outlaw gang he was pursuing. Now he’s a drifter, hiring out his gun and his detective skills and usually winding up taking hard luck cases that put him in danger and never net him much profit.

In THE GUNMAN AND THE ACTRESS, Dillard’s second recorded case, originally published in 1995 by Robert Hale as part of the Black Horse Western line and now available in a revised and expanded e-book edition, he’s hired by a theater impresario to protect the scandalous French actress Giséle Bourdette, who is on a tour of the West with her troupe, putting on shows at various frontier opera houses. Dillard joins the troupe in Argos City, Texas, where they will perform at a fancy new opera house built by the local cattle baron.

That cattle baron has a beautiful, headstrong daughter who dislikes the potential husband her father has picked out for her, and there’s a gang of Mexican bandits raising havoc in the borderlands, too. Both of those things will complicate Joshua Dillard’s efforts to keep Giséle safe and incidentally protect the proceeds from her tour, and he also has to navigate an unexpected passionate affair with the actress.

Chap O’Keefe, who is really veteran author and editor Keith Chapman, is a fine storyteller and keeps the action moving along at a very nice pace in THE GUNMAN AND THE ACTRESS. Joshua Dillard’s adventures always play a bit like hardboiled detective yarns set in the Old West, and this one is no exception. Chapman throws in a number of plot twists and brings everything to a suitably rousing climax. I had a lot of fun reading THE GUNMAN AND THE ACTRESS, and if you’re a traditional Western fan, there’s a good chance you will, too. Recommended.

A Gunfight Too Many - Chap O'Keefe (Keith Chapman)

When it comes to popular fiction, Keith Chapman is something of a treasure. He’s a long-time reader and commenter on this blog, of course, but beyond that he’s a writer and editor whose career stretches back 60-some-odd years, to the days of Sexton Blake and EDGAR WALLACE MYSTERY MAGAZINE, of which he was the founding editor. Over the years he’s also been a prolific author of fine Western novels under the pseudonym Chap O’Keefe, many of them published originally as Black Horse Westerns by Robert Hale. The good news for Western readers is that quite a few of those novels are available again as e-books, and more are in the works.

The latest of these is A GUNFIGHT TOO MANY, originally published by Hale in 2008 and reprinted in large print by Ulverscroft in 2009. I really like that title, and it’s fitting, too, because the protagonist is Sheriff Sam Hammond, an aging lawman who wonders if he’s lost enough of his edge that one of these days he’ll come up against some badman who’s faster on the draw than he is and lose his life in a gunfight too many.

That worry doesn’t relieve Sam of his devotion to duty, though, and his job as sheriff becomes more complicated—and more dangerous—when a detective shows up in Rainbow City on the trail of an elusive, notorious bank robber known as Dick Slick. Is it possible that this ruthless outlaw is hiding out in plain sight in Sam Hammond’s bailiwick, posing as a respectable citizen?

Sam has to deal not only with that problem but also with a beautiful widow who has her sights set on him, an equally beautiful rancher’s daughter, a deputy who’s wounded and laid up for a spell, and various rustlers. Everything leads up to a spectacular underground showdown in an abandoned mine.

As you’d expect from his background, Chapman is an excellent yarn-spinner and storyteller. He writes books that are just plain fun to read, and A GUNFIGHT TOO MANY is no exception. The action moves along at a good pace and Sam Hammond is a really likable protagonist. The villains are properly despicable, as they need to be in a book like this. I had a fine time reading this novel and think most traditional Western fans would agree. The e-book edition is available on Amazon and several other platforms, which you can find here.

By the way, the cover artist is Duncan McMillan, and this painting appeared originally on the February 4, 1931 issue of the pulp WEST. Just one more indication that Keith Chapman is working in a legendary tradition.