Guns of Tascosa - Ryan Fowler

Bounty hunters Frank Nolan and Ed Cole find themselves pinning on tin stars for the first time in their adventurous lives as they agree to be the co-marshals of Tascosa, a wild new town in the Texas Panhandle. The respectable citizens are living in fear of outlaw Brett Harding and his gang, and they turn to Nolan and Cole to deliver some law and order and make Tascosa a decent place to live. The new lawmen try to rally the town behind them, but there may be more hidden dangers in Tascosa than the two long-time trail partners are aware of.

GUNS OF TASCOSA is a traditional Western in the very best sense of the term, with stalwart heroes, despicable villains, a little humor and romance, and plenty of well-written action. Author Ryan Fowler, a prolific writer under his own and other names, spins his yarn with a breakneck pace and well-developed characterization.

And then, part of the way through the book, he springs a plot twist that I didn’t see coming at all. This is always a huge bonus as far as I’m concerned because I love it when a book surprises me. Fowler also brings a sense of gritty authenticity to this tale. It’s easy to see that he knows and loves the Texas Panhandle. This is excellent reading for fans of classic Westerns, and I give it a high recommendation. It's available for pre-order on Amazon.

Ozark Mountain Massacre - Ryan Fowler

Taney County, Missouri. 1883. Tensions are thick. The gun smoke is even thicker!

Jacob Langthorn just wants peace. Having roamed the West, he’s happy to be back home in the beautiful Ozark Country of Southwestern Missouri. With a cabin by the creek and kinfolk nearby, Jacob is ready for a quiet life.

But fate has other plans.

With criminals running rampant in Taney County and crooked officials turning a blind eye, someone has to step in and tame a lawless land. So, Jacob straps on his guns once more and confronts a violent band of outlaws.

But other folks want to take the purge a few steps further. What started as a one-time event has become a movement. A group of vigilantes in horned masks are terrorizing the mountains, burning out and taking down anyone they deem unfit for their community. With families split and friendships torn apart, Jacob will have to step in once more and fight a monster he helped create.

Not knowing who he can trust or if he’ll even survive, it’s going to take all the grit Jacob has to stop the vigilantes before full-scale war breaks out and the Ozarks run red with blood.

(I read this a while back in manuscript and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a fast-paced, very well-written traditional Western yarn with plenty of action, but what really comes through is Fowler's love of the setting, which he captures beautifully, and his empathy for his well-developed characters, especially Jacob Langthorn. This is Fowler's first Western novel, but it won't be his last. Jacob Langthorn's second adventure is already in the works, and I'm eager to read it. This one is highly recommended for Western fans!)

Bear River - Ryan Fowler

I’ve always liked small town mysteries: Ellery Queen’s Wrightsville novels, Bill Crider’s Dan Rhodes books, and Ed Gorman’s Sam McCain series are good examples, among many others I’ve read over the years. Ryan Fowler’s debut novel, BEAR RIVER, is a fine addition to the sub-genre.

The narrator, Mike Burkett, is a former army investigator and policeman who has become a successful novelist and abandoned the big city to live in a small vacation community in northern Utah named Bear River. He’s friends with the local chief of police, and when a young woman who’s renting one of the local vacation homes goes missing, the chief asks Mike to help out as a volunteer part-time deputy. Mike’s not sure he still has the skills to get involved in such an investigation, but he plunges into the case anyway, and it’s not long before he’s uncovered a murder. He also runs into a couple of attempts on his life, but that just reinforces his determination to see things through and uncover the truth.

Mike’s investigation takes him from one end of Utah to the other and into Arizona and Montana, and he turns up a wide array of possible suspects ranging from meth dealers living in squalid trailer houses to wealthy business owners who have fabulous vacation homes in the area.

Fowler spins this very well-paced yarn with assurance and skill. Mike Burkett is an extremely sympathetic and likable narrator/protagonist, the supporting cast is top-notch, especially an Arizona sheriff who helps him out, and the plot is appropriately twisty. I really enjoyed BEAR RIVER and hope it’s the first of a series. Highly recommended.