Review: A galloping good read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 17, 2012
If this isn't an homage to the B-westerns shown at Saturday matinees, and which later became staples of television programming in the 1950s, I don't know what is. Shades of the greatest sidekick of them all, played by George Hayes, it even has a grizzled ranch-hand named Gabby, who loves to boast about his imaginary exploits and who's fond of using expressions like "Dadblame it," and referring to another cowboy as a "young whippersnapper."DEAD MAN'S REVENGE is exactly the kind of story the title implies, as a man named Dick Dockett, whom Rancho Diablo owner Sam Blaylock thought he'd killed, turns up seeking revenge--on Blaylock and his entire family. The problem is, Dockett doesn't realize that Blaylock is a hard man to kill, and that he doesn't take threats to his wife and children lightly.Like a great B-western, this novella starts out fast and doesn't let up. Like galloping hooves, readers' fingers will be turning the pages to see what happens next.The only nit I have to pick is with punctuation. There are any number of sentences that are clearly questions, but which end with periods instead of question marks. I spotted a couple of misspellings, too. Some good proofreading would definitely benefit the work.