For too many years, westerns don't seem to have been getting the readership that many of them deserve. Now, that's changing. The cognoscenti have always known that a western tale can cover a multitude of storylines, from the epic to the tragic, breaking out of the pulp straitjacket time and again. So it comes as no surprise to me that a certain US Marshal Cash Laramie is making waves. He's the modern equivalent of Edge mixed in with Marlowe.
This collection of seven stories has moments of irony, humour, grim reality, compassion, and vengeance. Cash and Miles ride on the side of law - the spirit, not the letter - and they're not averse to bending the rules when justice isn't about to get served. These characters have great potential - not least as evinced in `Under the Sun' (co-written with Sandra Seamans) - because even on the periphery of the story's protagonist, the two lawmen make their presence felt.
I enjoyed all of the stories, though I guess if I claimed any favourites they'd be `The Wind Scorpion', `Melanie' and `The Outlaw Marshal'.
If you like your short stories dark, even noir, where the bad guys get what's coming to them, then you'll love these.
Cash Laramie first appeared in the anthology A Fistful of Legends in the story `Cash Laramie and the Masked Devil', which is not represented in this collection.
A Fistful of Legends
