J.E. Gessler S.L. Kotar

I can remember watching Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Maverick, Sugarfoot, The Deputy and other Westerns on television when I was young. Those programs and books of the same genre were favorites of my father and thus part of my early childhood. When I saw the offer to read and review the second book in the Hellhole Saga, a book written by co-writers for a well received episode of Gunsmoke, I had to ask for a copy. Thankfully I received one and also received the first in the series, too.

This second book in the Hellhole Saga starts and ends with the widowed wife of a man that had a huge impact on Marshall Claw Kiley. Though her part in the book is minimal there is a good chance that what she left on Claw’s desk will play a part in book three.

The story of Hellhole, Claw, Cougar and Dr. Ward continues. In this story there is a homestead burned in that Claw goes out to check on. What he finds sends him off alone across country tracking two groups of people, one following the other, one that he wants to prevent from taking justice into their own hands and the other he wants to bring to justice. It is dicey for awhile for Claw but he finds a benefactor that saves his bacon, gets him safely back to Hellhole and will eventually become his deputy. He also encounters a man and his daughter that are looking for a place to settle, decide on Hellhole, and I assume will appear in future books of the saga. After his return and being patched up, the “hiders” start arriving with bundles of pelts to sell. There are fights to control, some cheaters to foil and once again Claw faces his mortality and is helped out by a friend. The romance continues between Cougar and Claw and at the end of the book I was left feeling this segment of the story was complete but eager to read what will happen in the next.

I can see this as a television series or perhaps a series of movies at some point in the future.

4.5 stars… (meer)