William Hopson

When I picked this book up, I was expecting frantic riding through canyons, horse chases, fisticuffs, and shootouts. Hell, at least it could’ve served up some grim stoicism like [b:Invitation to a Hanging|59766446|Invitation to a Hanging|Walt A. Coburn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1638836513l/59766446._SY75_.jpg|20896881], but it doesn’t. The first third of the book is a slog where there is a lot of talking, and I do mean A LOT. The book did not start with properly setting the scene or anything, it just went into a discussion on the very first page. In addition, the author is terrible at transitions, he just moves from one thing and/or character to another which lost me more than once and forced me to backtrack and slow down. I HATE that! Evidently, either he knew that as well or his editor talked to him because a character clarifies the whole first two chapters in a single line of dialogue. He should’ve at least started with that if not setting the scene with descriptive text. I hated the first third of this book, but then it got gruesome, so I kept reading.
In the first third, the “hero” of the story is caught cutting off the ears of a dead warrior and this ear cutting goes through the rest of the book. But the middle section is where the brutality gets going with a full description of the Adkins massacre, the incident that fuels Bud Adkin’s (our hero) thirst for vengeance. After that, there’s a scene where a pair of hounds are found alive post-massacre with their hind legs tied and their bellies slit, so they’re put out of their misery. There is a description of “the dead lying scattered with buttons straining over swollen bodies”, a brief but graphic description of the amputation of an arm at the shoulder, and a disturbing episode with diseased horses and burning corrals. I was not expecting this level of gore and it’s a shame that the book was not better written.
The last third was easier to read leading up to the big battle, it was frankly just better written/edited. The hero does take a pretty nasty vengeance on the main villain, Black Rope, by not only defeating him in a fight but humiliating him by putting him in a squaw’s dress, not the last of his indignities before his end. This would have been much more satisfying if the villain was built up more as a character, his and his warrior’s brutal and effective tactics were just not enough as they were fighting for their ancestral land. However, the Adkin’s Massacre did paint him as a personally savage man but that served more to motivate the hero than anything else. The main problem with the inciting incident is that we’re told about it, it is gruesome, but experiencing it as a scene would have been so much more effective. Hell, if that opened the book, it would’ve hooked me immediately.
I don’t know if I’d ever recommend this book even to the most avid western-genre fan due to the garbled nature of the text in the first third and the overreliance on telling through the mouths of characters rather than showing. I don’t often harp on the “show rather than tell” mantra as in books you can tell rather than show for many reasons but here, there was a better way to go. The only redeeming quality here is the sheer brutality on show. Even the big finale battle is lackluster in its actual execution. Frankly, I think I let the title seduce me.
… (meer)

Cogin was captured as a boy by Apaches and raised as one until he was shot and captured by the U.S. Army when he was sixteen. Reunited with his family, he never overcame his stoic Apache demeanor. When a drifter who is welcomed to his family ranch for an a brief rest assaults and kills his teenage sister, he sets out to capture and kill the villain.

After a visit to a town in the dessert whose inhabitants believe him to be a bounty hunter on the trail of big money, he is followed by five of those shady citizens. In short order he is facing difficulties from the murderer he is chasing, an Apache raiding part led by an old advisory from his Apache days and a Mexican bandit not to mention the five citizens he dosen't like who are after the bounty money.

This one fast moving, exciting western read.… (meer)

At 127 pages, a short novel post war Texas and the idea of moving cattle to the rail head in Kansas. Spanish land grants, Indian attacks, angry ex-confederates and carpetbaggers all make their way into the story.

Colonel Valentine "Shag" Kenniker is assigned the job of meeting the Comanche chief, Too-Many-Horses, to try & stop the attacks on settlers. What he finds is a corrupt Texas Senator and a New Orleans crime boss planning to steal a Spanish land grant along with 8000 cattle which they will herd to Missouri. There is a lot of action in this story as well as some history of Texas.… (meer)