Review: `Foller me, boys. I went thataway.'
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 4, 2014
Spaghetti westerns in both cinematic and literary formats have long been a favorite with readers: they take adventure on a man to man level to the maximum without the need for intervention by aliens or comic book hero types. If my count is correct Van Holt has penned around forty gun fighting novels and some critics have termed him the successor to Zane Grey (seems his actual count of books written is around sixty, the others being adventures outside of the Old West). His bio states, ` Holt wrote his first western when he was in high school and sent it to a literary agent but it was rejected for being too long. On a tour of duty as an MP stationed in South Korea Holt nabbed a North Korean spy and had to talk the dimwitted desk sergeant out of letting the guy go. Holt says there hasn't been too much excitement since he got out of the army, unless you count the time he was attacked by two mean young punks and shot one of them in the big toe. Holt believes what we need is punk control, not gun control. After traveling all over the West and Southwest in an aging Pontiac, Van Holt got tired of traveling the day he rolled into Tucson and he has been there ever since, or maybe the next great mystery writer. He likes to write mysteries when he's not too busy writing westerns or eating Twinkies.'Holt has taken on the concept of eBooks and made them ride the range. People seem hungry for these tomes of yesteryear - back in the days before CGI blighted our imagination synapses and we were dependent on fine writers to take us on a trip outside the everyday world in which we live. He knows his way around not only the country of the Wild West but also the conditions of living in that environment in the old days. Holt's stories keep rolling (I think the total count of westerns is about 40 now) and while we would expect there to be some repetition in themes or in characters the novels continue to be fresh. His characters are not only realistic: they are credible in language, behavior and gunfire! And to set the records straight about Van Holt's long history of being a master Western writer he offers a fie author's note at the beginning of this novel - as interesting a history of a writer as you're likely to find anywhere.For those who are committed to Van Holt's Westerns no definitions are needed. For the uninitiated the term `six-gun' often used in other books beside this one is defined as `a revolver that can fire six shots with one loading.' In this superbly written new issue from Van Holt his six-gunner is again Cole Decker whose intention (and success) is to rid the plains of the sorts of seedy outlaws as the brother Snot and Lick Wagner (yes, those are the names assigned, another fine atmospheric additive by Holt!). The logistics Van Holt places in the mind and action of six-gunner Cole Decker are up to the best of the characters he has created and as usual reading Van Holt western (short and sweet and irresistible) is addictive. Highly recommended new territory for all readers. Grady Harp, June 14