Montana Dead-Shot
By Chuck Martin
This publication 1969 Macfadden Books
First published 1958
It's a coincidence that I had this book ready for review as part of Pattie's FFB meme, as the author was mentioned in the Archive's Laurie Powers interview and she's kindly going to scan some letters the author sent to her grandfather for my perusal - well, that kind of thing pleases a western nut like myself.
But back to the book.
Jack Sloane, known as Bitter-Root Sloane rides into the town of Placid with his pard, Bisley Fargo. He's here to look into his father's death, killed at the hands of unknown rustlers and Bitter-Root won't rest until he's found and killed the men responsible for the death of his father. A local gunman named Shad Blainey starts to taunt Bitter-Root, trying to push him into a fight but Bitter-Root holds back, knowing that soon he would face off against the man who some say is the fastest gun in The West.
It's all pretty much standard western stuff but done with style and the pacing is tremendously fast, with characters that the readers come to care about which, when all is said and done, is all a book needs to provide.
A great traditional western from bygone years by a writer who has been forgotten to time but deserved to be remembered. I urge anyone who comes across this book to pick it up, open the covers, and lose themselves in this excellent, all action, western which takes the best element of the oater tradition and mixes it with a little mystery and a lot of character led humour.
Excellent.
3 comments:
We should not someone named Bitter Root would not let his father's death go unchallenged.
Chuck Martin is a forgotten writer - really good to see him reviewed.
I do believe that a couple of Chuck Martin books have made it into BHW but not under original titles or even author name.
If anyone finds out what those BHW books are, I'd love to find out what they are.
Post a Comment