Review: Really?  Not a Western, Not a Romance Novel, Not a Mystery, so what is it?
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 01 9, 2014
Well, it's a short story about a man named John Parker who shows up in a small western town to see a man named Maben.  Unfortunately the old man has been gunned down before Parker shows up.  Parker wants answers.  People think what Parker really wants is the hidden money that Maben left out at his ranch.Well, that's about as far as it goes in being a western.  It's set in the old west and everyone carries a gun.  Disagreements are handled with a bullet, there is no real law and well, men survive by being the best shot.What this really was in my opinion was a way for Maben to write about three women who don't seem to be able to get enough sex.  Two of them are jumping into bed with every man that comes along.  The third isn't, but once she is raped she seems to change and become like the other two.Parker has no problem bedding all three women.  Frankly two of the three women can't seem to get enough sex.  I lost count but Parker must have sex three times in one night with two different women.  He has sex multiple times on multiple days.  So, really, this is a western?  No, this is a terrible diatribe about people not being able to control their hormones.This is my opinion, I just thought the book stunk.  It never even answers the question, Is John Parker the son of Old Man Maben?  Will John Parker find true love?  Will John Parker ever settle down?  Or is John Parker just a gun slinger who will continue on killing people?My opinion, Parker is a young man who went off to the civil war and came back damaged emotionally and searching for someone to help him put life back together.  But that is never developed in Van Holt's writing.If you want a good western go to Zane Grey.  If you want a good Romantic Western go to Linda Lael Miller.  If you want sex, pick up Maben by Van Holt