Letter of the Law by C.K. Crigger

TITLE: Letter of the Law
AUTHOR: C.K. Crigger
PUBLISHER: Amber Quill Press
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 71k)
GENRE: Western
COST: $7.00

When gunslingers decide they want to take over Endurance, only one man seems to be standing in their way. They do their best to take down Sheriff Pelham Birdsall, but through the sheer tenacity of his wife Delight, he survives the attack. It lays him up, however, leaving the town wide open. His deputy is lazy and a drunk, and the only man Delight seems to have any confidence in helping is the ex-gunslinger who’s currently housed in one of the jail cells. Tuck Moon doesn’t want to get involved, but Delight isn’t a woman who takes no for an answer, and together with a recovering Pel, the trio do everything in their power to take care of the gunslingers, once and for all…

It saddens me to think that westerns might be a dying genre. There’s something about the grittiness of the Old West and the kind of people it generates that fascinates me. So when I find one I really like, I want to shout it to the world.

This was one of those books. On the surface, it’s not really that original. The story is about the Birdsalls, Pelham (the Sheriff) and his wife Delight. A new gang has rolled into town, and while he’s out doing his duty, Pel gets shot in the chest. It’s touch and go there for a while, since the town doctor is a drunk, but Delight is determined not to let Pel die. She’s left somewhat watching over things, since Pel’s deputy is lazy and spends more of his time drunk as well. Currently housed in one of the cells is Tuck Moon, an ex-gunslinger who was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct. He’s respectful and helpful to Delight, and she learns to trust him very early on. With her husband out of commission, it’s up to Delight to try and keep everyone believing that he’ll be back on the job as soon as possible to take care of the latest threat, knowing full well that he’s lucky just to be alive. Through a series of incidents, Tuck ends up becoming a deputy as soon as his sentence is up, and together the three of them do what they can to stop Endurance from becoming another ghost town.

What sets this story apart is the rich cast of characters. Each of the three primaries are strong yet flawed individuals. Pel has a sense of honor and code that goes all the way to his core, Delight was a sheriff’s daughter before getting married and finds newfound strength in the face of her husband’s adversity, and Tuck is a drifter who gets a new lease on life when someone completely unexpected trusts him. They make mistakes, but the best thing is, they learn from them and bounce back. Sometimes, they get knocked over again. They might even make the same mistake more than once. But their tenacity and force of character drives the story forward, making me care with everything I have that it all works out, even when it looks like there’s no way it possibly can. There are no cheats when it comes to the consequences of their actions. When Tuck takes a beating, it flattens him for real. He has to heal up. He doesn’t miraculously jump back to his feet to beat the bad guys down. And for all her determination to see things through, Delight doubts herself all the time. She questions her strength. She acts, oh my god, like a real person. What an absolute joy, especially since she’s not the only one.

The villains of the piece don’t have the same textures the protagonists do, but that’s a flaw of the genre in general. I also felt that some of the townspeople blended together a little too much, since so many of them weren’t willing to do anything to stand up against the bad guys (understandably so, but to the detriment of their uniqueness). Other weaknesses of the story are harder to pinpoint. For instance, I can’t tell if there’s actual headhopping going on, or if it’s just faulty formatting on the ebook side. Plus, some of the language used borders on trite and stereotypical. Considering how gritty and vivid the setting and primary characters were, that was disappointing.

Overall, though, this stands proudly with other excellent stories in its genre. With characters to care about and root for, plot twists that keep it racing forward to its conclusion, and a setting that makes the reader practically feel the dust beneath the sole of his shoe, this cements my opinion on this writer. This is the second of her westerns that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I’m confident it won’t be the last.

Readability	7/10 – It’s hard to tell if it’s headhopping or the formatting, and some of the stereotypical language grated after a while, but otherwise engrossing
Characterization	9/10 – Loved the main characters. Gritty and flawed and completely believable
Plot	8/10 – It’s not the most innovative of ideas, but the twists that came along to get where they were going made up for it
Entertainment value	8/10 – Thoroughly entertaining, with a memorable cast
World building	9/10 – Gritty and grimy without sacrificing the newness of being in the Old West
TOTAL:	41/50

King in Check by Treva Harte

TITLE: King in Check
AUTHOR: Treva Harte
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 22k)
GENRE: Futuristic western (cowpunk)
COST: $4.99

As the boss’ kid, Mosquito is doing everything possible to earn the staff’s respect. But the memory of the foreman lingers strong with them, and now that Rey is returning home, Mosquito is even more fearful of losing control. Until Rey shows up, and his appeal becomes more than obvious…

When I read this blurb, I was half in love already. I loved the cover, I loved the idea, and the 1^st person excerpt hooked me in. I think my high hopes contributes a great deal to just how disappointed I am in the final result.

My mini-blurb above only gives the beginning, because a lot of stuff happens after Rey comes home. Rey is suffering from fighter flu, the effects of a drug he took as a fighter that enhanced his natural abilities. It is killing him, and his life expectancy when he returns to the compound is extremely short. After falling for Rey, Mosquito is determined to do what it takes to help him, which means trying to find the old healer who left the compound years ago in hopes she’ll have some sort of folk medicine that will help. It goes on from there, with Federistas hunting for them, intrigue, jealousy, and more. And it never really works for me.

The biggest problem rests in the world building. It’s clear this is some kind of futuristic western milieu (cowpunk, the publisher’s site calls it), but little to no explanation is provided to explain the setting, either physical or political. There are hints of some great imaginative details, but nothing is ever fully explored, leaving me with a ton of questions almost from the very beginning. The only rationalization I can come up for it is that the author intends to provide explanations in later stories, but honestly, by the time I reached the end, I was so frustrated, I’m just not willing to take that risk.

This lack of detailing is also the primary issue with Rey, Mosquito, and well, all the rest of the characters. Motivations are only hinted at. Actions come out of nowhere. Intent is nonexistent, because without providing context (more than “I’m the boss’ kid” or “I’m the ex-foreman”), it falls flat on its face. I liked Rey and Mosquito, but frankly, never felt like I knew them. Their feelings sprung out of nowhere. One minute Mosquito hated him, next she understands why everybody worships him. Rey and Calle – his lifelong friend and lover before leaving to fight – have a better developed relationship, but even that wasn’t very deeply explored. Calle seemed more of a plot device than a character.

For readers who care about body parts, this is a het romance with an m/m erotic scene in it as well. I did like the fluidity of sexuality in this universe, but it will likely bother those readers who don’t want their romance tainted (het readers who don’t want m/m contact, m/m readers who don’t want het contact).

Readability	8/10 – Alternating 1st person POVs gives perspective but lacks true depth for me
Hero	6/10 – I liked him, I just felt like I didn’t know much about him
Heroine	5/10 – A casualty of the holes-filled world-building, interesting but uneven
Entertainment value	4/10 – In the end, as much as I liked the ideas behind this, the serial feel to the ending as well as the huge holes in the world building frustrated me too much to enjoy the story
World building	5/10 – Points for originality, minus points for lack of followthrough on the execution
TOTAL:	28/50

Black Crossing by C.K. Crigger

TITLE: Black Crossing
AUTHOR: C.K. Crigger
PUBLISHER: Amber Quill
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 62k)
GENRE: Western
COST: $7.00

When Marshal TJ Osgood rides into Black Crossing for his first day on the job, he’s greeted by the swinging body of a seventeen-year-old boy arrested, tried, and sentenced just the day before. He’d been accused of timber jumping, but his friend – TJ’s new deputy – claims he was innocent. So does the dead boy’s mother, but the man they’re all pointing fingers at not only owns the town, but is the man who sought TJ out and gave him a job. Now, TJ needs to find out what really happened, and set the story straight…

Every time I read a western, I ask myself, “Why don’t I read more of these than I do?” And I don’t know the answer to that. Because I quite often walk away from a finished book in this genre with warm feelings and a smile on my face. This book was no different.

The plot itself is not anything wholly original. Osgood is the new marshal in a town controlled by someone corrupt, and ends up caught in the middle of freeing the town from his tyranny and the man with the power to destroy him. At forty, Osgood is almost past his prime as a lawman, and his body is rebelling. He was shot in the leg just prior to coming to Black Crossing, Idaho, and that hobbling in many ways acts as a metaphor for what holds him back throughout the story. He’s made mistakes, and is unwilling to make those kind of mistakes again, a trait that’s hugely admirable and makes it very easy to empathize with him. It also places him in the underdog position, so even though he’s the one with the badge, he’s the one the reader holds his breath for throughout the story, time and time again.

His characterization isn’t the only well-rounded one. By far, the majority of the cast becomes a realistic individual almost from the moment they’re introduced. There’s Benny Tompko, his naïve but moral deputy. There’s Ione Gilpatrick, the mother of the dead boy, who has a fierce spirit and sense of honor that shine off the page. Even the minor character of Magda, Benny’s mother and a feminine presence to counter so many of the men, is warm and inviting. If I have any complaints about the characters, it would only be that the evil guys lack the same sort of depths the good guys do. However, I fully recognize this is a western trope, and so I was far more forgiving of this during the course of my reading.

The prose itself has a quiet intensity that keeps the action focused and the forward momentum strong and even. I didn’t care for the author’s propensity to turn “whoa” into a verb, as in “He whoaed his horse…” but aside from that niggle, I breezed through this. There is rarely a lag in the pacing, and while there are some romantic elements introduced to the story, they are very minor. They add just enough interest for those readers who might want that kind of emotional depth, without becoming the focus for any one of the characters to distract the readers who might prefer this based on its genre. I wouldn’t mind revisiting the town of Black Crossing again, if the author ever chose to pick it up again. Some of its residents almost felt like family when I turned the last page.

Readability	9/10 – A quiet intensity to its pacing keeps this going along
Characterization	8/10 – Some of the secondary characters aren’t quite as rich as the leads, but there’s a rustic realism to almost everyone that adds to the charm.
Plot	7/10 – While not wholly original, there’s enough action and likable characters to keep the forward momentum strong.
Entertainment value	8/10 – I cared enough about everyone to want to see this through to the end.
World building	9/10 – There’s grit in every scene.
TOTAL:	41/50

Circle Star by Tatiana March

TITLE: Circle Star
AUTHOR: Tatiana March
PUBLISHER: Resplendence Publishing
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 75k)
GENRE: Historical western romance
COST: $6.50

When Susanna Talbot discovers her father has died, she returns to the ranch upon which she was raised – to discover the only way she can inherit is if she marries Connor McGregor, the boy who disappeared from their lives thirteen years earlier. The boy who professed to want to marry her until she threatened to have him kicked off the ranch he’d come to love. Nobody has seen him in all that time. Now she has three months to find him, or risk losing everything…

It’s not an original plot. The have to get married to satisfy the condition of a will device has been overused to the extreme. But the blurb didn’t make me cringe, and there was a lovely calm glow about the cover that sucked me in, so I read the excerpt. It’s actually the prologue of the book and captures time when the hero and heroine are teenagers, when he is becoming aware of her as a girl and not just the boss’ daughter. It held a distinct charm and nostalgia that appealed to the warm fuzzies in me, so I bought this in spite of the unoriginality of the idea. In retrospect, I’m glad I took the chance.

It’s not perfect. But for as long as the story remains focused on Susanna and Connor, it’s certainly engaging. Susanna isn’t a wilting flower, in spite of being sent to Philadelphia at thirteen to “become a lady,” and Connor is appropriately damaged and alpha. Both have been pining for the other for most of the time they’ve been apart, though neither is keen to admit it. Susanna is willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure she doesn’t lose her home and livelihood, and I have to admit that her plan to get Connor back to the Circle Star – while extreme and maybe not in Connor’s best interest – made me appreciate both her determination and spirit. The frustrations of keeping these two apart worked double time for me; more than once, I just wanted to grab both of them and shake them out of their obstinacy. Not in a bad way. In a heavily invested in seeing these two happy way. When it finally happened, I had a huge smile on my face.

But then things start shifting. Halfway through the story, Susanna’s best friend from Philadelphia arrives for a visit. Claire is spunky and entertaining in her own right, but as the resolution comes in sight for Susanna and Connor’s misunderstandings, Claire takes more and more of the stage. Her scenes are what drive the last third of the story, and while I liked her – and more importantly, liked the romance she was given – it ultimately meant losing time with the two characters I’d spent the first 2/3’s of the story falling in love with. It was towards the end, too, that the story starts taking more saccharine turns. Even scenes between Susanna and Connor don’t hold the same bittersweet edge they’d carried earlier. I think it’s probably to counter the drama inflicted upon mostly Claire, but it felt out of character for me and wasn’t what had invested me in the story in the first place.

Though there are very minor editing issues throughout the story that niggled slightly, and the author’s propensity for confusing loose with lose is something that should have been caught, it didn’t end up detracting from my enjoyment of the story. I just wish there might have been a different way of sustaining the conflict, rather than introducing a new character halfway through and creating drama for her rather than the ones I started out with.

Readability	8/10 – In spite of minor editing errors and a jump of story focus 2/3’s of the way through, I devoured this.
Hero	7/10 – As damaged and alpha as they come
Heroine	7/10 – Smart and spunky
Entertainment value	7/10 – This would have been higher, as many of the scores, if the story hadn’t shifted focus away from the characters I wanted to care about most.
World building	8/10 – Though there’s nothing extraordinary in the prose, upon reflection afterward I realized just how immersed I’d been in its reality
TOTAL:	37/50

Whiskey Shots, Vol. 18 by Darrel Sparkman

TITLE: Whiskey Shots, Vol. 18
AUTHOR: Darrel Sparkman
PUBLISHER: Whiskey Creek Press
LENGTH: Anthology (roughly 11k)
GENRE: Western romance
COST: $2.99

Two short stories about lawmen in the Old West, and the women who get in their hearts…

The first and longer story of the anthology is “Stage to Abilene.” Marshal Matt Bodine is on his way to Abilene to collect on a warrant when his horse gets hobbled and he’s forced to hitch a ride with a passing stagecoach. He runs into an old female acquaintance, amongst others, and when the stage is stopped by Kiowa, he gets out to negotiate passage through. The charm of this short story is not its plot, though it moves along at a fair clip. It rests in the anthology's strength as a whole – with its characters. They are colorful and distinctive, and if maybe one or two fit into stereotypes of the genre, it’s easy to forgive in light of sharp dialogue and vivid descriptions. There’s mild headhopping in this particular story, but on the whole, it’s not that disruptive. There’s enough dusty charm to keep me sailing through, all the way to smile of an ending.

The second story is called “Comanche Trail.” Marshal John Becker finds himself in a shootout with Indians, trying to protect the young woman he just rescued from them by accident. John is wry and appealing, as is Mandy, the woman he aids, and I particularly loved their banter, even in the midst of all their troubles. As people, I connected with these two a little bit more than the principles in the first, but the story itself didn’t flow quite as well. There’s an awkward flashback near the beginning that takes me out of the rhythm of their relationship, and it takes a little bit before I can settle back into it. Of course, the story is quite short, so that little bit is literal not an exaggeration. But it’s pleasant and funny, and when I get to the end, I’m more than happy with how everything turned out.

On the whole, the collection is a delightful morsel of Old West charm. I’m interested in reading some of this author’s other stories. With his attention to detail and sparkling characters, it would be fun to see how he works with longer formats.

Readability	8/10 – Mild headhopping disrupts the flow for me in the first story, while the second’s flashback jolted me.
Plot	6/10 – Not the most original stories, but solidly told.
Characterization	9/10 – Characters in both stories leap off the page, with often funny and almost always realistic dialogue
Entertainment value	8/10 – There’s a comfort with both of these stories that pulls me in and leaves me with a smile.
World building	9/10 – Colorful detail and exact knowledge paints vivid pictures in both short stories.
TOTAL:	40/50