Death in the Nations - Terry Alexander

I generally don’t mind when historical characters are used as the protagonists in fictional stories, as long as the author at least makes an attempt at staying fairly close to history. Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves, a black man who rode after outlaws in Indian Territory for Judge Isaac Parker in Fort Smith, has been featured in a number of stories and novels over the past few years. Reeves probably came to prominence in the world of fiction not only because he’s a pretty interesting character in his own right, plenty tough and capable of doing the hard, dangerous job of running down lawbreakers on the frontier, but because of some claims (since thoroughly debunked) that he was the inspiration for the creation of The Lone Ranger. (Yes, that’s a pet peeve of mine. It’s impossible to prove a negative, of course, but I’m completely convinced George W. Trendle and Fran Striker never heard of Bass Reeves.)

Anyway . . . For the past few years, the excellent New Pulp publisher Airship 27 has been putting out an annual anthology of Western novellas featuring Bass Reeves, written by top-notch authors such as Mel Odom, Derrick Ferguson, and Gary Phillips. One of Odom’s stories won the Peacemaker Award from Western Fictioneers for Best Short Fiction last year. As a Peacemaker submission this year, I read “Death in the Nations” by Terry Alexander, from BASS REEVES, FRONTIER MARSHAL, VOLUME 3. It finds Reeves heading into Indian Territory again, this time on the trail of a murderer. The father and brothers of the man who was killed are going to take the law into their own hands and go after the murderer themselves unless Bass can catch him and bring him back to Fort Smith first. Bass’s only lead is that the fugitive has a cousin who heads up an outlaw gang in the Nations, and that’s where he figures the man will head.

Naturally, things don’t go smoothly in Bass’s quest to capture the killer, and Alexander does a fine job of placing obstacle after obstacle in his path. There’s plenty of action, and I especially enjoyed the way Alexander has Bass use his brain to accomplish his goal as much as he uses his guns and fists. This is a good story, and I liked it enough that it prompted me to buy the latest volume so I can read the stories by Mel Odom and R.A. Jones, as well. There’s plenty of good Bass Reeves-based fiction out there. If you enjoy Western action yarns, you should give them a try.

Western Union - Paul Bedford

WESTERN UNION is another book submitted for the Peacemaker Awards. As I’m writing and scheduling this, I have no idea how it fared in the competition, but I liked it. It’s by Paul Bedford and was published as part of the Black Horse Westerns line in England.

Ransom Thatcher is a young man who works for Western Union in 1861, when the company is trying to complete a transcontinental telegraph line at the same time as the Civil War breaks out. Thatcher is teamed with a tough, laconic former Texas Ranger named Kirby and assigned to find out who is responsible for tearing down the part of the telegraph line that’s already been completed in Nebraska. At the same time, a wagon train full of immigrants who want to avoid the bloody conflict back east sets out from Omaha, headed for the Pacific Northwest. The fate of these settlers will wind up entwined with the mission Thatcher and Kirby have to complete.

Paul Bedford spins this yarn with quite a bit of skill, juggling several different plotlines and sets of characters and bringing them together in ways both expected and unexpected. There’s plenty of action as well. One of the challenges for any British writer of Westerns is to sound authentic, and Bedford does a pretty good job of that. There are a few words and turns of phrase that don’t ring true, but probably less than would crop up if I were to attempt to write a book set in England.

WESTERN UNION is the first novel by Paul Bedford that I’ve read, and I enjoyed it enough that I’m glad I have several more by him on hand. I’ll be reading them, too.

The Scarred One - Tyler Boone (Charles Gramlich)

Trenton Banning arrives in the mining boomtown of Sun Falls, Wyoming, on the trail of the man he blames for the fire that killed his parents when he was a child and left Banning badly scarred. Banning is convinced that mining and hotel tycoon Jonathan Hunsinger is responsible for that blaze, and Hunsinger is now in Sun Falls engaged in building a hotel and operating a mine. However, Banning isn’t in town long before he discovers a couple of things: Hunsinger has a beautiful daughter, Elizabeth, and something sinister is going on in Sun Falls. In short order, the one friend Banning makes, a burly mountain man, is attacked and badly injured. Then Banning is framed for the murder of a saloon girl, and the local lawmen won’t be any help since they seem to want Banning dead just as much as everybody else in Sun Falls.

THE SCARRED ONE is the first full-length Western novel by Charles Gramlich, writing under the pseudonym Tyler Boone. It’s an excellent debut that features top-notch handling of the traditional Western elements while at the same time giving the reader plenty of well-developed characters and some unexpected plot twists. Trenton Banning is a fine protagonist, tough enough to handle himself when trouble crops up but not a superman. The budding attraction between him and Elizabeth Hunsinger is particularly well done, and the novel’s climax is a satisfying one.

Gramlich has done very good work over the years in the horror, fantasy, and science fiction genres, and THE SCARRED ONE proves that he’s equally capable of delivering an excellent Western novel. I recommend this one and look forward to many more.

(Note: As the awards chair for Western Fictioneers’ Peacemaker Awards, I receive a number of novels every year, many of which I’d like to read. I don’t have anything to do with the actual judging for the awards—my job is strictly keeping track of the entries and counting the votes at the end of the competition—but I’ve always felt like it wouldn’t be proper for me to review any of these books while the competition is still going on, just to avoid the appearance of any undue influence. So this year I’ve decided to go ahead and read and review the ones I want to, but I’ve scheduled the posts to run after the awards have been announced. That’s why you’re seeing this in June, rather than in January when I wrote it. Look for more Peacemaker reviews to come.)