Review: Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles + That Damned Coyote Hill

I read The Adventures… over a long period, which doesn’t do it full justice. It’s a credit to the book that I could leave long gaps between the stories and get back into them within one or two lines. Now I’ll say, probably what most people who read this book will say, I don’t normally read Westerns, but I enjoyed this one. When I say normally I mean never have. And yet below this review is one for Heath Lowrance’s western. So I’ve gone from 0-2. The second volume of Cash Laramie’s adventures is out now and I will pick this up. Not all that soon as I’ve had a word with myself: stop buying new books until you have read at least fifty-percent of the books you’ve already bought and not read.

The adventures begin with a simple tale involving Cash Laramie. These first two have the feel of the Western serials I used to watch on a Saturday morning. We get a snippet of Cash in action. There are shootouts and at least one woman bedded. Then we meet Gideon Miles, the black marshal. This is a nice touch. Gideon is a target for racial abuse. He can handle it. I don’t mean he’ll just take it with a shrug saying ‘it’s all water off a duck’s back.’ I mean he can outdraw anyone around and is pretty handy with a knife. If you are going to use the N-word to Gideon you’d better make sure your affairs are in order first. Teamed up with Cash they are a formidable pairing. Which is why they are not teamed up that often through these stories. If they were they’d be pretty short stories indeed – Cash and Gideon had some arse kicking to do, which they did. They are together enough for us to enjoy the way they get along with each other.

The tales move along like this until we get to Melanie. I don’t want to spoil anything but this one changes things. Cash isn’t quiet the man we thought he was. It’s not that we got him all wrong, more that there’s is a side to im which we are now seeing for the first time. It’s a side that makes for good Noir Fiction. This tale was my favourite of the collection.

These books have made my look at westerns in a new light. I’d never thought of them as noir fiction before. Now I can’t understand why not. Lone stranger, with a past we can only guess at, turns up in a small town and kick up a storm of vengeance and killing. Pretty much sums up a lot of spaghetti westerns.

This book costs 86p on Kindle Amazon UK. If you have a kindle buy it. Then dip into the stories when you get a spare ten minutes. Better still turn of the X-Factor and give yourself some reading time.

Edward A. Grainger (David Cranmer) is on Twitter as @CashLaramie. He also has a blog here: http://davidcranmer.blogspot.com/. I am on Twitter as @SethALynch

The Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles, by Edward A. Grainger
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 412 KB
Publisher: BEAT to a PULP (8 Jun 2011)
ASIN: B00558VIBC

I just watch the remake of True Grit last night – a great film.

That Damned Coyote Hill, Heath Lowrance

If M R James ever wrote cowboy stories they’d be a lot like this one.

Hawthorne is a mysterious figure drawn on by a desire for revenge. Why? Who knows – who cares? They guys he is after are bad and Hawthorne has decided to be the man who makes them pay.

Then there are the people of Coyote Hill.

Then there are the Coyotes.. .

Everything I’ve read by Lowrance is fantastic. He’s an imaginative and creative story teller. Start here if you like, or with Dig Ten Graves, or The Bastard Hand. It doesn’t matter too much where you start, if you have any taste and a little bit of style, you’ll end up reading the lot.

I want more by Lowrance, and I’d like to see more of Hawthorne. He has a new novel out in 2012 and there are a few more shorts to read.

Heath Lowrance has a blog here: http://psychonoir.blogspot.com/I have linked to this site under writers. He is also on Twitter as @HeathLowrance.

That Damned Coyote Hill, Heath Lowrance
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 37 KB
Publisher: Trestle Press (12 Oct 2011)
ASIN: B005VEM9FO