recent read; Merkabah Rider: High Planes Drifter

Merkabah Rider: High Planes Drifter by Edward M. Erdelac

Did you ever have a book title on your To-Be-Read list for a long time - like, too long - like, you really knew you should get to the book sooner rather than later but never did? Yeah.

I'd been aware of this one for a long time, even to its previous edition.

If it's on your TBR pile, stop waiting. If it isn't in your TBR pile, drop it on top.

This is a great book!

The Rider is a nameless Hasidic gunslinger who searches the West for the his mystic mentor who betrayed him. The Rider also fights on the nether world of the astral plane, hence the pun title on "High Plains Drifter."

Despite the punning (which carries on with further titles in the series) these are horror weird western stories that deliver. Erdelac steeps the Rider in Kabbalah magick and more. From the first novella, we are immersed in the old West and in the Rider's mystic world and tragic backstory. The Rider went deep into the occult, and then his mentor betrayed him. Hunting for his teacher, the Rider encounters other adventures along the way, of course. Demons, ghosts, occultists, mad preachers, ghouls, and much more.

This first volume contains four novellas and a bonus short story.

If you are a fan of occult horror, horror, monster hunters, occult detectives, westerns, weird westerns ... heck, it's all here. This is one unique Weird Western!

Highly recommended!

recent read/listen; Bass Reeves, Frontier Marshal, Volume 1

Bass Reeves, Frontier Marshal, Volume 1

I'm on a kick to read a lot more new pulp. I'm using Derrick Ferguson's list, 75 New Pulp Books To Get You Started, as a starting point.

I've already read a few titles from the list. I'd been building up my Audible credits again, so I grabbed some titles from the list. The nice thing about the pulp titles is that most of them are on the shorter side (8hrs or under,) so I can knock them off faster.

Bass Reeves was a real person. A black man, a former escaped slave who worked the Indian Territories (Oklahoma & Arkansas) as a U.S. deputy marshal. He had an amazing career.

The stories in this volume are fiction, not history. The palate of the Old West and Reeves's exploits serve as a cauldron to mix facts of the man's life with Western tropes to produce enjoyable tales.

Here's the t.o.c with log lines;

"Ride from Three Devils" by Gary Phillips
While chasing the notorious outlaw, Alamosa Bill, Bass Reeves stumbles into a plot to rob a government silver shipment on a west-bound train.

"Whiskey Road" by Mel Odom
Bass must infiltrate a gang of vicious horse thieves to find a kidnapped child.

"No Master But Duty" by Andrew Salmon
Reeves and his posseman collar a wanted man only to have the citizens of the small frontier town he is hiding in refuse to give him up.

"A Town Named Affliction" by Derrick Ferguson
When an old lawman turns outlaw, Bass Reeves and his possemen must hunt down the Chance brothers and bring them to justice.

There is also an introduction from Ron Fortier with suggested histories of Bass Reeves for further historical reading, and each author has an afterword with their story.

I'm not a Western expert. I've read a few. I've seen a fair number of western movies though I still feel like I've only scratched the surface. That said, I thought these stories were solid and entertaining. They were well narrated, too.

Worth your time.

I'll be getting to Volumes 2 & 3 sooner rather than later.

recent read; MEMO FROM TURNER

MEMO FROM TURNER by Tim Willocks

Taking a break from his Tannhauser historical fiction trilogy, Willocks delivers a thriller set in modern South Africa.

What happens when a man of absolute integrity finds himself trapped in a world of absolute corruption?

During a weekend spree in Cape Town a young, rich Afrikaner fatally injures a teenage street girl with his Range Rover but is too drunk to know that he has hit her. His companions – who do know – leave the girl to die.

The driver’s mother, a self-made mining magnate called Margot Le Roux, intends to keep her son in ignorance of his crime. Why should his life be ruined for a nameless girl who was already terminally ill? No one will care and the law is cheap. But by chance the case falls to the relentless Warrant Officer Turner of Cape Town homicide.

When Turner travels to the remote mining town that Margot owns – including the local police and private security force – he finds her determined to protect her son at any cost. As the battle of wills escalates, and the moral contradictions multiply, Turner won’t be bought and won’t be bullied, and when they try to bury him he rediscovers, during a desperate odyssey to the very brink of death, a long-forgotten truth about himself...

By the time Willocks's tale is finished, fourteen men have died. He shows once again that he is the laureate of the violent thriller.

As you can see from the synopsis, this might be filed under crime thriller but the story is a modern western. An incorruptible officer of the law, wading into mining territory controlled by a big boss who will stop at nothing to protect their offspring? What could be more western?

Warrant Officer Turner is determined--a man of honor who will uphold the law until the bitter end, like any good sheriff of old. He encounters corruption and resistance at every turn.

With Willocks, we can expect a spaghetti western, too. We get one, sure enough. Willocks lays out the characters like chess pieces, and the tension builds as events and people are moved into place for the showdown.

Willocks pulls a bit of a feint. The violence arrives and it starts off not quite so visceral as I would have expected. But then the plot hits its major twist and Willocks again casts an unflinching brutal eye over the madness of violence and survival. Not for the squeamish.

I enjoyed this one a lot. Recommended if you like crime fiction and/or bloody westerns. It moves right along. I read it in a few days.

MEMO FROM TURNER has not been published in the U.S. It is available via second-hand sellers through Amazon, ABEBooks, and other sites.

recent read; SCAVENGERS

 SCAVENGERS by David J. West

David J. West continues to challenge his story writing abilities and we're all the better for it. After walking, running, and haranguing Porter Rockwell through various adventures of the Weird West, West now brings us a novel length work which - for the most part - is a straight-up Western featuring the stalwart hero.

Rockwell finds himself caught up in the hunt for lost treasure. He makes a few friends along the way but mostly he is beset by enemies - hostile Natives, criminal gangs, a bandito army, a U.S. cavalry unit lead by an unscrupulous officer, and a manic German reverend with brainwashed followers.

Rockwell needs his guns, wits, strength and fortitude to blaze his way through adventure, enemies and traps. There are some great mental images I had while reading. West provides terrain descriptions that come to life, too. Porter is often out of the frying pan and into the fire as the cliffhanger action keeps the story moving along at a brisk pace.

The only touch of 'weird' here is the Reverend's mushroom-tainted communion drink and lost Spanish treasure. The rest is a Western, with a healthy dose of spaghetti-Western, at that.

If you like action-driven Westerns, you should give SCAVENGERS a read!

recent reads; Porter Rockwell 2-fer

COLD SLITHER

David J. West has created his own Weird Western niche by crafting tales of the historic figure, Porter Rockwell. West weaves Native American myths, monsters, legends, tall tales, and touches of cryptozoology and lost civilizations into a fun and original tapestry. Rockwell strides through this collection of stories. Not to be missed if you're a fan of Weird West tales, action, wry humor, and monsters.

SIX-GUN SERENADE

Two tales of West's Weird West take on Porter Rockwell, the Mormon gunslinger. The first tale extends a story that originally appeared in shorter form. Second story is a previously unreleased bonus. Also, a teaser chapter from his first novel length Porter tale, SCAVENGERS.

Very enjoyable westerns with just the right amount of weird. West has developed his version of Porter into a fun 'cowboy' character. I look forward to reading the novels.

recent short read; Fangs of the Dragon

So, you want to read a "weird Western" tale? How about something with a lake monster and more? How about including some interesting history of schism in the Mormon church woven into the tale with a real life gunslinger?

David J. West takes the historical Porter Rockwell and makes him his own semi-fictional character. Taking the basis of Porter's modern-day Samson blessing - so long as he did not cut his hair, he would be impervious to blade and bullet - it is not an unreasonable step into the weird and supernatural.

West asks the simplest author question. He asks, "what if?"

What if Porter came up against tooth and claw? How would he survive that?

I thoroughly enjoy the character of Porter as presented by West. Porter is rough and tumble, but true to those who are true to him. He's not above a touch a medicinal alcohol - he particularly favors a tincture infused with raspberry when he needs it. But, he doesn't swear - which is great fun, because his go-to cuss word is "Wheat!"

This story is not straight forward, either, which is a good thing. There is more than a simple lake monster, and Porter needs to put together all the pieces between monster chasing and gunslinging action.

You can read "Fangs of the Dragon" in West's collection, Weird Tales of Horror (which contains other Porter Rockwell tales, too, btw) or stand-alone for the price of a cup of coffee (or less.) So, grab that cuppa (or some raspberry tincture) and enjoy a rousing tale of the weird West.