Fight Card #4: Counterpunch - Jack Tunney (Wayne D. Dundee)

I've enjoyed all the previous FIGHT CARD books very much, and the just-released fourth volume, COUNTERPUNCH, is by my old friend Wayne Dundee writing under the house-name Jack Tunney. So I expected to enjoy it, too, and as always, Dundee doesn't disappoint.

COUNTERPUNCH is the story of Danny "Duke" Dugronski, an aging fighter in Milwaukee who's at the tail end of his career. After his long-time manager dies suddenly of a heart attack, he discovers that the man may have been involved in a shady deal with a mobster who's trying to move into the fight game. Dugronski doesn't really believe that for a second, but he has to find out the truth and his investigation leads him into trouble and more trouble.

At the same time, Dugronski is moving into a tentative romance with the daughter of his late manager, who's recently divorced from her cop ex-husband. It's open to debate whether the guy is going to be a help to the Duke's efforts or a hindrance, and there's also the worry about whether his new enemies may strike at him through those he cares about.

There's a strong thread of decency and humanity that runs through all of Dundee's work, and it's certainly present here. Danny Dugronski is a fine hero, a strong man who won't let obstacles get in the way of him doing what he thinks is right. There's also plenty of action, as COUNTERPUNCH opens and closes with a pair of epic battles in the ring. If you haven't sampled the FIGHT CARD series yet, this one is an excellent place to start, and if you've read and enjoyed the others, don't hesitate to grab this one, too. I had a great time reading it.

Cash Laramie: Manhunter's Mountain - Wayne D. Dundee

David Cranmer continues to allow other authors to contribute to the on-going saga of U.S. Marshals Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles, and he couldn't have made a better choice for MANHUNTER'S MOUNTAIN than Wayne D. Dundee, who has rapidly vaulted into the top ranks of current Western writers.

The manhunter of the title is Arapaho-raised, hardnosed lawman Cash Laramie, who arrives in the dying mining town of Silver Gulch on the trail of a fugitive. He finds and arrests his quarry in pretty short order, but as it turns out, that's not his main challenge. There are other manhunters, too, and Cash's big job will be getting out of the mountains in the middle of a winter storm with some murderous miners and a ruthless bounty hunter on his trail. The two soiled doves he's trying to get back to civilization at the same time will only complicate matters.

Dundee keeps the action moving along at a rapid pace, and as always, Cash Laramie is a compelling character, a testament to Cranmer's creation of him in the first place. The supporting characters are interesting as well, and the fact that not everything turns out exactly as you might expect is an added bonus. So are the excellent descriptions of the landscape and the way the mountains and the weather almost become characters in their own right.

MANHUNTER'S MOUNTAIN is a fast, very entertaining novel, and I'm sure fans of Cash Laramie and of Westerns in general will thoroughly enjoy it. I certainly did.

Goshen Hole - Wayne Dundee

Private eye fans have reason to be very happy. Joe Hannibal is back in Wayne Dundee's new novel GOSHEN HOLE.  Nameless, Matt Scudder, and Spenser may be the deans of the currently active PIs, but Joe Hannibal has been cracking cases (and heads) for almost as long.

Relocated from the Chicago area to western Nebraska, Hannibal spends most of his time on the private security service he runs for businesses and residences around a recreational lake. But when he's asked by a friend to look into the disappearance of the man's ex-wife, Hannibal's private eye instincts kick in and he takes the case, which leads him to Cheyenne, Wyoming and a self-made millionaire who owns a chain of truck stops and has some shady business associates. From there, things just get worse, including a couple of murders, a considerable amount of punishment both dealt out and taken by Hannibal, and a thunderous climax.

Dundee does a great job with both the small-town stuff and the gritty mean streets of the city, in this case Cheyenne. He also introduces some great characters, some good, some evil, some it's hard to say, and not everybody turns out to be what they seem at first, either, which is always a good thing. The best thing about this book, though, is Joe Hannibal himself, who may be getting a little older but is still tough, smart, and determined enough to get the job done. His friendship with William Thunderbringer, an ex-mercenary bounty hunter who pitches in to give Hannibal a hand, is reminiscent of Spenser and Hawk, but it would be unfair to characterize them like that. For one thing, they're much more realistic and believable, as well as more likable. (Not a shot at Parker. I like Spenser and Hawk. I'd just rather hang around with Hannibal and Thunderbringer.)

GOSHEN HOLE is a fine addition to a long, consistently excellent series. If you haven't read Dundee before, you can jump on here without much trouble. If you're a long-time Joe Hannibal fan like me, there's no question you're going to want to read GOSHEN HOLE. It's one of the best books I've read this year.

Hard Trail to Socorro - Wayne D. Dundee

In a fairly short period of time, Wayne Dundee has become one of my favorite Western writers. That opinion is only strengthened by his new novel, HARD TRAIL TO SOCORRO, the first in a series featuring bounty hunter Bodie Kendrick. Here's the publisher's description of the book:

Bounty hunter Bodie Kendrick apprehended his prey without too much trouble. Claiming the reward, however, turns out to be not so easy.

First there is Veronica Fairburn, the beautiful woman who has her own business in Socorro and insists on sticking with Kendrick when he sets out to return there with his prisoner … Then there's the gang of tough ranch hands dead set on relieving him of the prisoner in order to dish out their own brand of personal revenge … Add in the Mexican desperado stalking the woman, and the band of renegade Apaches raiding throughout the region—and Kendrick has his work cut out for him.

Complicating matters even more are the feelings developing between Kendrick and Veronica.

But the greatest challenge of all may come from the daring passage they must attempt over the Jornada del Muerto—the Journey of the Dead, awaiting them in the merciless White Sands desert. 

That's a good solid plot, and Dundee makes it even better by throwing in a few twists along the way. Not everything is the way it seems to be at first glance, and that's always a good thing in a book as far as I'm concerned.

Where Dundee really succeeds, though, is in his gritty action scenes, his feel for the landscape, his characters, and his ability to focus on the things that make the classic Western such an appealing genre: honor, courage, determination, and redemption, even at a high price. Dundee's Westerns remind me very much of those by Gordon D. Shirreffs, another favorite of mine.

Maybe it's just because of his name, but all the way through HARD TRAIL TO SOCORRO I kept seeing Bodie Kendrick as Clint Walker. Those of you who grew up in the Fifties and Sixties like I did will understand that reference. This novel would have made a great hardboiled Western movie from that era, although it has some more contemporary touches to it as well. Mostly it's just very entertaining, and I had a great time reading it. If you're a Western fan, you really should read it. And if you know Wayne Dundee's work only from his excellent private eye stories and novels featuring Joe Hannibal, I highly recommend that you try his Westerns as well.

O'Doul - Wayne D. Dundee

Wayne Dundee is quickly making a name for himself as a top-notch Western writer. His short story "This Old Star" won the Peacemaker Award for Best Short Story from the Western Fictioneers. His novel DISMAL RIVER has been acclaimed as one of the best Westerns of recent years. And his e-book novella THE GRAVE OF MARCUS PAULY has been very well-received as well.

His new e-book novella O'DOUL was published recently, and it's another winner. O'Doul is an old cowhand with a grim secret. He works on a ranch where the owner and his much-younger wife are haunted by a tragedy of their own. There's also a young puncher involved, but he's an honorable man and the complicated relationship between him and his boss's wife doesn't work out exactly like you might think. All of it leads inevitably to violence.

There's not a lot of action in this story. It's more of a low-key, intense, character-driven yarn, but Dundee's fine writing keeps things moving along just as briskly as if there were a gunfight every few minutes. I have a lot of admiration for a writer who's skillful enough to make human emotions as exciting and compelling as action scenes, and Wayne Dundee definitely fits that description. O'DOUL is an excellent novella, and I highly recommend it.

The Grave of Marcus Pauly - Wayne D. Dundee

"An old grave...
A determined woman...
An ex-con with a conscience...


Annabelle Heath travels west on a mission to fulfill her mother's dying wish. To do so, she needs the help of a man once in prison for bank robbery.


Ford Ramsey needs his job at the stable and has no time to take off on a foolish errand. But something about this woman makes him rethink his first inclination.


Together, they ride into wild country to look for a long ago grave and find more than either has bargained for."


I've mentioned here before that Wayne Dundee's DISMAL RIVER is one of the best Westerns I've read in a long time, and now he has a new Western e-book out, THE GRAVE OF MARCUS PAULY. It's a really fine story, too, with sharply drawn characters, some very evocative writing about the frontier landscape, and a poignant sense of melancholy about the passing of time and people's dreams. Plus some excellent action scenes and a very powerful ending. All in all, this is a splendid piece of work, as we've come to expect from Wayne Dundee. Highly recommended.

Two Books Not to Miss

I read Wayne Dundee's DISMAL RIVER a while back and thought it was one of the best Westerns I'd read in years. I still do. It's available now in paperback with an e-book edition coming soon. And while I haven't yet read all of David Cranmer's Cash Laramie stories (written under the name Edward A. Grainger), I've read enough of them to know that this collection is a must-have, as well. In fact, it's already sitting on my Kindle, waiting for me to have a few spare moments.