Commando: Cardiff Blitz - Gary Dobbs

Cardiff, 2nd January, 1941. For over ten hours, the Welsh capital was blitzed by over one hundred German bombers who were determined to turn the city to ruins. On the ground and among the rubble was the Martin family. The father, Charlie, was a firefighter in the AFS and his daughter, Freda, was an Air Raid Warden. While Charlie put out the flames from the incendiary bombs, Freda helped civilians get to the safety of the shelters. But the Blitz wouldn't be the only challenge the pair would encounter that cold Cardiff night...

CARDIFF BLITZ is the first COMMANDO story written by Gary Dobbs, also known as blogger and Western writer Gary Martin Dobbs. I believe he has several more scripts in the pipeline, and I hope so because this is an excellent homefront tale of World War II. The characters are very good and we can't help rooting for them, including a cat known as The General who prompts some of the action. I really enjoyed this one and look forward to reading more issues of COMMANDO written by Dobbs.

Check Out: The Dead Walked #1: Outbreak - Vincent Stark (Gary Dobbs)

Writing as Vincent Stark, popular Western author and master of the Tainted Archive Gary Dobbs joins the Zombie Apocalypse:


Some said it was viral.
Others claimed it was an act of God.
Either way the result was the same and the dead walked.

September was her favourite time of the year, and late September, when the autumn was just preparing to hand over to winter, when there was still a residue of the late summer warmth in the air, as well as the crisp promise of the iciness to come, had always been, as far as Missy was concerned, the finest chunk of that particular month.
Not for her was the spectacle of high summer, nor the morose beauty of mid winter. Of course they both had their fineries but these paled next to the season when the leaves glittered with reflected sunlight. It was the autumn, with September being the highlight of that season, which she loved – a time when nature put on its finest display as the lush summer growth was magically transformed.
The sky itself seemed to glow at this time of year.
September was a time of promise.
A time of rebirth.
Not this September, though.
This September, Missy would remember as, the time the dead walked.

Edge #1: The Loner

Starting tomorrow, the ebook reprint of the first novel in the long-running Edge Western series will be available from Amazon, Smashwords, and the other usual suspects.  The cover is a nice one, reminiscent of the original series but different as well.  The book includes a pair of fine introductions by the author, Terry Harknett, and our friend Gary Dobbs, who played a large part in making the series available again.

I first read this novel more years ago than I like to think about and enjoyed it a great deal.  Pinnacle published nearly fifty books in the series, and I read a lot of them (but not all).  Other books were published in England but not in the U.S., and in recent years Terry Harknett has written several sequels that take up the story of Edge's life as an older man.  This seems like a good time for me to reread the first one, which I intend to do in the near future.  I like books written in a distinctive voice, and the Edge novels certainly qualify.  At the time they first came out, there wasn't anything else like them, and although they were widely imitated, they still remain the prime example of Piccadilly Cowboy sub-genre of Westerns.  The Edge series probably isn't for all Western readers, but I've always liked it and hope its return is a triumphant one.

The Tarnished Star - Jack Martin (Gary Dobbs)

THE TARNISHED STAR, the debut novel by Gary Dobbs of The Tainted Archive (writing as Jack Martin), is out now, and I’m happy to report that it’s a fine traditional Western novel. It’s the story of Sheriff Cole Masters, who runs afoul of the evil Bowdens, father and son. Wisely starting in the middle of the action, Dobbs takes a page from the movie RIO BRAVO and has Masters waiting for the arrival of the circuit judge so that the prisoner in his jail, Sam Bowden, can be tried for the murder of a prostitute. Sam’s father, wealthy and powerful cattleman Clem Bowden, has a different idea. He plans to free his son, no matter what it takes.

From that point, Dobbs veers off from the expected and spins a yarn of violence and redemption in gritty, tough-minded prose. Cole Masters is hardly an infallible hero. He can be indecisive at times and dangerously impulsive at others. He never loses his devotion to the law, however, and before the book is over, the title reference to a tarnished star takes on more than one meaning.

THE TARNISHED STAR is an entertaining, fast-moving story, as are all the books I’ve read from the Black Horse Westerns line. From the pulpish cover to the final showdown in which plenty of bullets fly, it’s a fine, action-packed Western that still manages to be character-driven. You can order it from an assortment of places, including Amazon and The Book Depository (which offers prompt, free shipping worldwide – hard to beat that deal, which is why I ordered THE TARNISHED STAR from them), and if you’re a Western fan, you want to get your hands on this one.

Another Wild West Monday Coming Soon

Over on his fine blog The Tainted Archive, Gary Dobbs presents a Wild West News Roundup today, including a mention that another Wild West Monday, designed to increase the demand for Westerns in bookstores and libraries, is in the works. There's plenty of other information about Western goings-on in this lengthy post as well. Check it out, and when you're finished there, go and read Gary's story "A Man Called Masters" at BEAT TO A PULP. This is a fine traditional Western yarn with a gritty, hardboiled tone that plays out in some ways you might not expect.

Tainted Archive Interview

Gary Dobbs, aka Western author Jack Martin, has a very nice article/interview with yours truly posted today over at the Tainted Archive blog. Thanks, Gary, for all your kind words.