Review: Shane and Jonah #1: Gun Law at Hangman's Creek - Cole Shelton (Roger Norris-Green)

I’ve been a fan of Australian Westerns ever since I read the American editions of Len Meares’ Larry and Stretch books and Big Jim books (Larry and Streak and Nevada Jim in the Bantam editions I read in high school). But for a long time, few of them were readily available in the United States. In addition to those “Marshal McCoy” books (the pen-name on the original Australian editions was Marshall Grover), Leisure did some double-volume reprints by various Australian authors, but that’s about it. Now, of course, in the e-book era, we have access to many, many more of these books, thanks in large part to the fine folks at Piccadilly Publishing and Bold Venture Press.

Which brings us to Shane and Jonah, a long-running series by “Cole Shelton”, who was really Roger Norris-Green, who is not only still alive and writing, thankfully, but is also my Facebook friend. Another friend and fellow author, Brent Towns, recently recommended the Shane and Jonah books to me, so I checked out the first one, GUN LAW AT HANGMAN’S CREEK.

Shane is Shane Preston, once a happily married rancher, but when his wife is brutally murdered by outlaws, he becomes a deadly hired gun to support himself as he searches for the killers. This is back-story, and by the time this book opens, Shane has settled the score with all but one of his quarry, but he’ll continue the search for as long as it takes.

His sidekick is Jonah Jones, a pudgy, white-bearded old-timer who saved Shane’s life when he was wounded. The two of them drift through the West, sometimes working as hired guns, sometimes as bounty hunters. In GUN LAW AT HANGMAN’S CREEK, they’re summoned to the settlement of the title to serve as town taming lawmen, since Hangman’s Creek has been taken over by a corrupt, vicious saloon owner and the gun-wolves who work for him. Shane doesn’t want to just wipe out the bad guys, he wants to rally the decent citizens of the town behind him so they won’t allow anyone to run roughshod over them again.

That’s the extent of the plot, and while it’s pretty traditional, the story plays out in fine fashion thanks to Norris-Green’s deft touch with character, his appealing protagonists, and some top-notch action scenes. He does a good job of capturing the setting, too, and everything comes across as suitably authentic. GUN LAW AT HANGMAN’S CREEK is a fast, satisfying read, just the sort of thing I’m looking for in a Western. I plan to read more of the Shane and Jonah series, so I’m glad they’re being reprinted. This one is available in an e-book edition from Piccadilly Publishing and a double-volume paperback edition from Bold Venture Press. By the way, I couldn’t find an image of the original edition from Cleveland Publishing in Australia or when it came out, so if any of you have either of those things, please let me know and I’ll add it to the post. 

Review: Naked Curse: A Larry Kent Mystery - Don Haring

Larry Kent was the protagonist of an Australian radio crime drama in the early Fifties called I HATE CRIME. The character was an American reporter who moved to Australia and became a private eye. The show was successful enough that enterprising paperback publisher Cleveland decided to put out a line of Larry Kent novels. In those books, Larry was an American private detective operating out of New York City. “Larry Kent” was both the main character and the by-line. Nearly all of the 400 novels that followed were written either by Des R. Dunn or Don Haring, an American who had moved to Australia, just like the character. Several years ago, the fine folks at Piccadilly Publishing began doing e-book reprints of some of the Larry Kent novels by Don Haring, teaming up with Bold Venture Press for the paperback editions. I’d been intrigued by the series, so I tried one of the e-books, and to my surprise, I didn’t like it and stopped reading after a couple of chapters.

However, I had a strong hunch that the fault lay with me as much as it did with the book. I just wasn’t in the right mood for it. That happens sometimes. When it does, especially when it’s a series that I expected to like, I give it some time and then try another of the books. Which is how I came to read NAKED CURSE.

In this one, Larry gets three cases, one right after the other, in short order. He’s hired because a beautiful young female artist is being stalked by an ugly brute. Then another beautiful woman hires him because she’s being blackmailed. And finally, he’s hired by an invalid millionaire stockbroker to find the man’s missing son. Sure enough (and you don’t get any bonus points for seeing this coming), those three cases turn out to be connected.

And this is one of those books where very little is what it seems to be at first. As he carries out his investigation, Larry runs afoul of a gangster and his hulking henchman, meets another beautiful young woman who may or may not be trustworthy, stumbles across several corpses, and gets knocked out more than once. In other words, classic private eye novel stuff. There’s a late twist that raises the stakes even more before Larry straightens everything out and winds up romancing one of the gorgeous babes he’s run into in the course of the story.

I enjoyed NAKED CURSE and plan to read more of the Larry Kent books. The story is interesting and moves right along, and Larry is a pretty good protagonist, smart and tough enough to deal with the trouble he encounters but far from superhuman. Haring’s writing strikes me as a little flat and I wish he’d had a bit more of a distinctive voice, but the prose certainly isn’t bad. And I don’t want to sound like I’m damning with faint praise. If you’re a fan of private eye novels, NAKED CURSE is well worth reading. It’s available on Amazon in e-book and paperback editions.