Review: A Fine New Voice in Western Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 3, 2011
For a while now, David Cranmer has been writing stories under the name Edward A. Grainger about Deputy U.S. Marshal Cash Laramie (sometimes known as The Outlaw Marshal because of his tendency to break the rules to accomplish justice) and his fellow deputy and sometimes partner Gideon Miles. Cash was raised by Indians and Gideon is black, so both of them are to a certain extent outsiders in frontier society, but that doesn't prevent them from doing their jobs.ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE AND GIDEON MILES is a new e-book collecting seven of the stories about these characters, five of them reprints from various venues and two appearing here for the first time. They're all tightly-plotted, well-written yarns, traditional Westerns for the most part but with some extra grit and edgy plots. One of them, "The Bone Orchard Mystery" (a story new to this volume), is just what it sounds like, a fine mystery story centered around a graveyard, and it's probably my favorite entry in the book.But all the stories are well worth reading. If you're a Western fan and haven't yet made the acquaintance of Cash and Gideon, you definitely should, and this volume is a perfect introduction.By the way, there'll be a new Gideon Miles story in the Western Fictioneers anthology to be published later this summer. One more good reason to keep an eye out for that one!