Mon 8 Mar 2010
Archived Western Review: LYLE BRANDT – Justice Gun.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western Fiction[2] Comments
LYLE BRANDT – Justice Gun. Berkley, paperback original; 1st printing, August 2003.
Lyle Brandt is another in a long line of pseudonyms for Michael Newton, author of over 170 novels, including many of the men’s adventure “Executioner” series, as by Don Pendleton. This is a western, though, and once you start reading it, it’s one you won’t put down right away.
The first 60 pages are intense. Gunman Matt Price is found by a migrating black family after being left for dead; is nursed back to a semblance of health; and then becomes the savior in turn when the small wagon is accosted by a gang of redneck outlaws taking exception to the color of the Carver family’s skin.
Refuge is found in the town of New Harmony, founded on the principles of equality for all. The doctor, who has her work cut out for her in saving Price’s skin again, is indeed a woman, which makes for two largely unlikely happenings (historically speaking) in one short amount of time.
New Harmony is, as it turns out, under attack, and Matt Price may or may not be their protector and their champion. Unevenly told — the middle section sags somewhat — and rather linear in terms of plot, but the story’s ending has all the gunsmoke and action you could ever hope for.
Bibliographic Data Justice Gun is the second in a series of western paperbacks labeled “The Gun Series.” Matt Price, I believe, is the leading character in all of them.
The Gun (2002)
Justice Gun (2003)
Vengeance Gun (2004)
Rebel Gun (2005)
Bounty Gun (2006)
Also by Newton as by Lyle Brandt are the books in his “Lawman” series, the lawman referred to being US Deputy Marshal Slade:
The Lawman (2007)
Slade’s Law (2008)
Helltown (2008)
Massacre Trail (2009)
Hanging Judge (2009)
Manhunt (2010)
March 8th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
There were certainly social experiments like New Harmony from the beginning of the American experience, but this seems to fall into the Max Brand category of westerns that were essentially modern tales with a western setting.
No problem there. The western has always been a repository for both historical accuracy and a mythological place only dimly related to the reality, and there is still a place for the kind of action oriented gunsmoking action piece from the pulp heyday — for which we can all be grateful.
Granted this all sounds a little DR. QUINN MEDICINE WOMAN but having grown up on Roy Rogers it’s hard to complain if the book entertains, which this sounds as if it does.
March 9th, 2010 at 10:23 am
I can’t confirm your DR. QUINN comparison, since without having my own review in front of me, I can’t say that I’d remember much about this book at all.
Please note that that’s no reflection on the author, only on my memory and lack of retention about details of books and movies I read or saw last month, say, much less over six years ago.
But apparently that aspect of the book, the female doctor, stuck out enough for me to mention it. And yet, based on my comments about “gunsmoke and action” in my last paragraph, I don’t think she was enough of a focal point of the story to make her a full-fledged heroine, a la Dr. Quinn.
As for the rest of Brandt’s books, I am surprised to see so many of them in his bibliography that I never saw for sale, much less purchased. Here in New England, we get two shelves at Borders of Louis L’Amour books and one shelf of everyone else.