Richard S. Wheeler applies his formidable skill of combining Western historical events with fiction in THE RICHEST HILL ON EARTH, his latest stand-alone novel. Here, the story surrounds the battle for control of the rich copper mines during the early history of Wheeler’s home state of Montana.
Its city of Butte in the early 1890s may not look like much. In reality, it’s nothing more than a collection of smoky mine boilers and various shabby shacks and buildings, all darkened with air laced with soot and arsenic from the copper smelters.
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I’m a fan of Westerns crossed with fantasy and horror elements. Some people salivate over cyberpunk. Some get giddy over steampunk. Me, I’m a fan of “cowpunk.” (And no, I didn’t coin that phrase. But I’ll certainly take credit if no one else will.)
Joe R. Lansdale is particularly adept at mashing the Western genre with horror, as anyone who has read his JONAH HEX stories from the ’90s can attest. Unfortunately, the filmmakers of the 2010 movie didn’t stick close to that template, deciding instead to do a mash-up of Hex with THE CROW, PUSHING DAISIES and MAXIM lingerie spreads of Megan Fox … but that’s a rant for another time.
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THE BADGER’S REVENGE, the third entry of Larry D. Sweazy’s Josiah Wolfe series, builds upon its preceding books. Wolfe is a no-nonsense Texas Ranger who is on the hunt for an Indian raiding party, but things change rather quickly when two Comanche scouts take him and his party as prisoners.
That does not sit right with our hero, since on most accounts, Comanches take no prisoners and would have easily scalped these men and left them for dead. It becomes apparent that these scouts have plans for Wolfe: collecting a bounty on his head, as a gang leader Wolfe has a history with wants to exact revenge.
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Wayne D. Overholser, who passed away in 1996, was a charter member of the Western Writers of America and won a Spur Award the first year they were given out, in 1953, as Lee Leighton. He would go on to win two more Spurs and be awarded the Saddleman Award for lifetime achievement in 1989. Five Star has released BEYOND THE LAW, a duo of novels that includes SHADOW OF A LOBO, introducing a new audience to Overholser’s writing.
In SHADOW, he tackles a familiar Western novel about the abuse of power in a small town, but adds some nice twists. Cliff Jenson always wanted to be a rancher, but instead, started a mercantile. There are two mercantile stores in town, so there’s competition, and a toll road that runs in and out of the valley. When a new banker comes to town and gives Jenson the choice to be a rancher or close the store, Jenson decides to do whatever it takes to keep his store, especially after the toll road owner disappears, and supplies become even harder to come by.
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In the 1980s, Guinness listed Lauran Paine as the most prolific writer in the world. Whether that is a good thing or not is up to the reader to decide. But when most people think of Western writers of the early generation, Paine is probably not the first name to come to one’s mind. he started writing short stories for the pulps and slick magazines in the ’30s and ’40s, then graduated to novels. The re-release of Paine’s long list of publications may change that.
IRON MARSHAL is billed as a duo, a standard format from Five Star. Its first novel, LOST VALLEY, tackles a generational ranch tale with all of the expected characters and tropes. A good-natured sheriff who must defend a homesteader on the land that is completely owned by the Hyland family, but hard to prove. Growth and progress are the evils here, fought by men determined to stay on land they believe is theirs, and the conclusion will come as no surprise.
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