Review of Six-shooter Tales

I was pleased to come across this review of my recent short story collection Six-Shooter Tales at Bright Dreamers Book Reviews

Beyond Redemption - Large Print paperback

The Linford Western version of my 2012 title Beyond Redemption is now available from all good libraries. I’m delighted with this paperback as it’s not only my 20th Linford Western, it has a well-considered cover, too.

As I’ve reported here before, a few years back Linford appeared to alter their policy on covers. They used to provide generic western pictures that would only ever be relevant to the story by accident, but recently they’ve tried to match story and cover with more care and I’ve benefited with some nicely appropriate covers. This one is undoubtedly the best of the lot and I’m thankful to whoever was responsible, as that bloke in the bottom left hand corner just has to be Elmer Drake!

As a child, Jeff Dale witnesses the terrible aftermath of an atrocity: Elmer Drake has killed three members of a family, but the daughter, Cynthia, is missing. Jeff vows that he'll find her, no matter how long it takes. Years later, after finding a clue about Cynthia's fate, Jeff follows the trail to the frontier town of Redemption. Here stalks a man who carries a gun in one hand and a cross in the other. A man called Elmer Drake...

The Outlawed Deputy now available on Kindle

My latest Kindle title is now available. As it turns out December’s offering Calhoun’s Bounty has been selling well. I had the great joy of seeing it become a bestseller for several hours in France, that joy not being diminished by the fact it had sold only one copy. Whoever you are, Merci beaucoup, I really enjoyed that moment! I guess if anyone ever asks me how much a bestselling author can earn I can provide the answer of 22p.

Anyhow this month’s offering is my first Black Horse Western The Outlawed Deputy. I was more nervous about reading this one again than the previous titles I’ve published simply because I was worried it might not be very good.

It was my first book to get accepted for publication and its storyline was about as uncomplicated as anything I’ve written. A bad guy does something bad and the good guy sorts him out is pretty much the plot, but that didn’t come over as badly as I’d thought. The thing that still irritated me is the hero. I’d remembered him as being a bit wet in this one, and he still is, which is annoying because Cassidy Yates is my longest running recurring character.

At the time I didn’t want Cassidy to start off as a strong lawman. I wanted him to make mistakes and learn lessons as he went along. In theory this was fine even in a shoot-‘em-up western, but in retrospect the valuable lesson he learns is everything would have been sorted out a lot faster if he’d just shot the bad guy instead of fannying around.

Anyhow the book is now available at Amazon.

 

Cassidy Yates was appointed deputy sheriff of Redemption City but such was his knack of attracting trouble that barely twenty-four hours after his appointment he had been slapped in jail! And if that wasn’t bad enough, Brett McBain’s outlaw gang rode into town to bust Nathaniel McBain from jail. Sheriff Wishbone is killed and the townsfolk think Cassidy responsible.

Now, having been imprisoned for the murder of his own sheriff, Cassidy must prove his innocence and the only way to do this is to infiltrate Brett’s gang. He must convince Brett he’s an outlaw, and persuade everybody else that he really is an honest lawman.

Could he pull off his enormous bluff or would he join Sheriff Wishbone on Boot Hill?