Manhunter's Mountain [Kindle Edition]

Silver Gulch is a mining town that's all but run out of metal to mine. Those who stay are either born optimists or are too lazy to move from the mountains.

In rides US Marshal Cash Laramie. He's there to collect an armed robber, Lobo Ames.

Between Cash and his man is a bartender with a sawn-off shotgun and a walrus moustache, not that Cash is going to be scared off by a little bit of facial hair. In the process of arresting Ames, Cash ends up spilling blood and burning down the only bar in town as well as all the booze in it. That doesn't please the miners, who don't cheer up much when he takes the only two women (prostitutes) with him as he sets off to bring Ames to justice.

A posse of miners go after the girls.

The situation gets further complicated when bounty hunter Cole Bouchet turns up hoping to take Ames in for the reward.

The impending winter storms look like they'll have something to say in the outcome and you'll have to read it to find out whether they do or not.

It's a fairly uncomplicated Western. The men have hard names and are used to living with nature. The horses are noble. The prostitutes have hearts of silver. The description is evocative and the action comes thick and fast.

Cash Laramie isn't as full of contradictions as he seems in the collection of stories The Adventures Of Cash Laramie And Gideon Miles, but that may be as much to do with the nature of the job involved in this novel. He remains a character I've come to love reading about and this did more than enough to have me itching to read more (and so I did - review later in the week).

A solid, unflinching Western.

This Cash Laramie tale is by a different author, and so I approached it with a degree of trepidation. I need not have worried, as Cash is just the same as ever. He's strong, self-contained, determined, practical, compassionate, tough as nails, pragmatic, and not riven by angst when the situation involves violence and killing: he knows his duty, and he does it.

Wayne D Dundee has excellent descriptive powers, painting clear pictures of the tired town and the nature of the surrounding country and its climate - to say nothing of bar fights and fires, shootings and disembowellings. The characters, too, are well-drawn, with the minimum of words. The two "soiled doves" are very different from each other; Parley is extremely brave; Merl Crane's thinking is well-reasoned and credible, and I could have wept for Freckles.

There's so much more to the book than the simple plot outline would suggest. There's lots of excitement and a fair bit of violence, but it all fits together logically, and the momentum never slows. The tale is about 102 pages long, and, satisfying as it was, it was still too short, and I did so want to know what became of Faye...

I'm now going to spend a disproportionate amount of my time searching for more Cash Laramie adventures by other authors. If there are any, and they're as good as this one, it'll be worth every minute.

This novella sees Cash riding into a remote town on the trail of a wanted man. The town is remote, in the mountains, and many trails are closed off by the snow. It's a gritty and enjoyable tale. There are a fair few moments where it looks like Cash won't survive the town itself.

His escape is made with the town's two remaining whores (the only women in town): something the town's folk - rough and ready silver miners - are not too pleased about. A few of them decide they are going to tack Cash down and bring the women back. If that wasn't bad enough a bounty hunter turns up and he is after the same man Cash has in his custody. Now it looks like Cash Laramie is standing between one of the nastiest bounty hunters around and his bounty. Add to this the mountains in winter and you have the elements of Manhunter's Mountain