After taking my one-week vacation from the column, I’m back in action. So saddle up, little buckaroos, as we once again peruse the pulp piles of the Old West. All three books are from series, none of which have been covered here before. The only thing I do know going in is that they are all purported to be adult Westerns.
GUNN #23: BEDROLL BEAUTY by Jory Sherman — Sherman is one prolific writer, with more than 300 books to his name. But today we will focus in on one of the series he created for Zebra Western: GUNN. As Sherman states, it was not as raw as some of the compatriots in the genre, like Longarm and Jake Logan. Gunn is your quick-draw good guy who likes the ladies — nothing different from any other adult Western, but there is something not found in those other series’ continuity that plays an important part of this 1985 book during the climax.
Gunn is called back to his land, and is almost trampled by a herd of sheep. He meets up with a Mexican who has been shot in the leg and Gunn searches for help, leading him to find out someone has built upon his land. And not only that, but the area seems to be under the control of these two brothers named Bickle. Gunn has a run-in with one of them and kills him. No surprise to anyone who has read any Western — I mean, anytime there is a pair of brothers, one will always get killed while the other swears revenge.
Gunn discovers that the cabin built upon his land houses a mail-order bride, while her husband lives in a nearby town, sending supplies to her once a month. I think you can figure out what happens when he makes it there. Again, no surprises per se, until the final outcome, where Gunn confronts the bad guys.
Sherman’s writing is playful enough for someone who wants to dip their toes into the genre, but doesn’t want some of the explicit descriptions you would find in other series. That’s not to say that the story skimps; it just never gets to the point of overkill. If I come across more of the GUNN series, I’ll probably grab a few more to join my never-ending piles of Westerns, because nothing makes a day go by faster than six-guns, horses and ladies in bodices.
RENEGADE #4: DEATH HUNTER by Ramsay Thorne — Welcome to another case of a prolific writer under an assumed name; Thorne is actually Lou Cameron, who wrote a variety of titles, including a few movie novelizations (the one I would love to get is CALIFORNIA SPLIT). The cover of the 1980 book proudly states it’s an adult Western; that is the understatement of the day.
He is called Captain Gringo, but his real name is Richard Walker, a soldier-of-fortune type in the Old West who is wanted by a variety of governments for his actions. There are 36 books in this series and it seems to have continuity, since in this one, Gringo works for someone he has had run-ins with before.
The story opens with Gringo in Costa Rica, just passing time. But this being an adult Western, it does not take long to get to the saucy parts. Gringo meets up with a woman who is “Australian” and is looking for some love, but it’s all a setup to take out Gringo and roll him. Of course, he’s too smart to fall for that. He not only takes down the alleged attacker, but then forces himself on the woman, who is really British.
In fact, every woman he meets in this book, he sleeps with or forces himself onto, be it mother or daughter, a 13-year-old with daddy issues, a married mine owner, a Chinese immigrant who poses as a boy, and some Costa Rican women.
The reason Gringo was set up was that a British officer named Greystoke has been chasing him around before. But now he has a mission for Gringo: finding a German submarine base on the island. Gringo and his partner in crime gather a group of men to fight in this underground mission, and DEATH HUNTER follows their exploits and Gringo’s sexploits.
Where the base is hidden will be so obvious to readers. With its ridiculous plot points and gratuitous sex scenes, this book delivers in spades. Cameron seems to enjoy mixing the historical aspects of the time into this tale of old-school soldiers of fortune. Hopefully, I can find more of these books on the cheap.
SHELTER #2: HANGING MOON by Paul Ledd — The SHELTER series was actually written by Robert J. Randisi — yes, the man behind the GUNSMITH series just two years later. It seems Randisi was just getting his feet wet in the genre of adult Western and finding his footing.
SHELTER seems to be a forerunner to his GUNSMITH series, in that we have a lone gunman who is quick on the draw and a magnet to the ladies. Unlike his later series, this 1980 novel comes off kind of prudish in that area. Of course, he does sleep with women in the book, but it in no way compares to anything that was to come later on.
Shelter Morgan — aka Shell — is on the hunt for a soldier who double-crossed him years ago. But on his way to find this man, he takes a job looking for some missing gold stolen from a friend of his. Shell meets up with a Quaker wagon train headed toward the area he planned on going to — the more the merrier, but in this case, one too many. The missing gold is actually part of the wagon train under everyone’s nose, thanks to a brother-and-sister team under the belief that no would ever suspect them as being thieves … until the great reveal two-thirds in, when Shell finds out who these two really are in league with.
It’s a fine oater, but I’ve read better from Randisi. Again, it seems as though he was just getting his bearings in this type of genre, since the sex is only there as page filler — nothing too titillating. But still, everyone has to start somewhere. I’d say stick with the GUNSMITH books for the simple reason that there are so many and easier to find, plus the lead is not as one-dimensional as Shelter.
Next time: the good ol’ days of spying. —Bruce Grossman
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF ROBERT J. RANDISI:
• LONE STAR LAW edited by Robert J. Randisi
• THE GUNSMITH #23: THE RIVERBOAT GANG by Robert J. Randisi
• THE GUNSMITH #44: THE SCARLET GUN by Robert J. Randisi
• THE GUNSMITH #128: THE CALIENTE GOLD ROBBERY by Robert J. Randisi
• THE PICASSO FLOP by Vince Van Patten and Robert J. Randisi
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- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> A Fistful of Pulps
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Card Sharks
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Tumblin’ Tumbleweeds
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> The Longarm of the Law
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Bronson, Hays and Babes
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I think Bob Randisi just wrote the final three books in the Shelter series. The others are by Paul Joseph Lederer, who wrote a bunch of house-name Westerns in the Eighties, as well as traditional Westerns under the name Owen G. Irons. The series by him you really need to track down is SPECTROS, a four-book supernatural Western series under the pseudonym Logan Winters. Very weird stuff.
I was going to say the same thing as James. I’ve read some books by Lederer and they weren’t much.
James has that right. I did Shelter 31-32-33 to end the series.
In 1980 I only had a couple of books out. My western career began in 1982 with The Gunsmith, followed closely by the Tracker series at Avon.
Honest mistake.
RJR