Customer Reviews

Manhunter's Mountain

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

David Cranmer continues to allow other authors to contribute to the on-going saga of U.S. Marshals Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles, and he couldn't have made a better choice for MANHUNTER'S MOUNTAIN than Wayne D. Dundee, who has rapidly vaulted into the top ranks of current Western writers.

The manhunter of the title is Arapaho-raised, hardnosed lawman Cash Laramie, who arrives in the dying mining town of Silver Gulch on the trail of a fugitive. He finds and arrests his quarry in pretty short order, but as it turns out, that's not his main challenge. There are other manhunters, too, and Cash's big job will be getting out of the mountains in the middle of a winter storm with some murderous miners and a ruthless bounty hunter on his trail. The two soiled doves he's trying to get back to civilization at the same time will only complicate matters.

Dundee keeps the action moving along at a rapid pace, and as always, Cash Laramie is a compelling character, a testament to Cranmer's creation of him in the first place. The supporting characters are interesting as well, and the fact that not everything turns out exactly as you might expect is an added bonus. So are the excellent descriptions of the landscape and the way the mountains and the weather almost become characters in their own right.

MANHUNTER'S MOUNTAIN is a fast, very entertaining novel, and I'm sure fans of Cash Laramie and of Westerns in general will thoroughly enjoy it. I certainly did.

This novella sees Cash riding into a remote town on the trail of a wanted man. The town is remote, in the mountains, and many trails are closed off by the snow. It's a gritty and enjoyable tale. There are a fair few moments where it looks like Cash won't survive the town itself.

His escape is made with the town's two remaining whores (the only women in town): something the town's folk - rough and ready silver miners - are not too pleased about. A few of them decide they are going to tack Cash down and bring the women back. If that wasn't bad enough a bounty hunter turns up and he is after the same man Cash has in his custody. Now it looks like Cash Laramie is standing between one of the nastiest bounty hunters around and his bounty. Add to this the mountains in winter and you have the elements of Manhunter's Mountain

Excellent hard-boiled western that does more than grip you with a strong story, but settles you among characters you'll miss when the last page is turned. A great read. Mr. Dundee takes Cash Laramie to new heights and sets him against his toughest enemy yet.

Manhunter's Mountain is a short novel about Cash Laramie, a Western character created by Edward Grainger. Grainger has been graciously allowing other writers to play with his toys of late, including Heath Lowrance's take on Gideon Miles, the other U. S. Marshal in the Laramie world.

The writer for this particular tale, Wayne D. Dundee, comes with a host of bonafides - as Western characters are fond of saying, pardner. Dundee is the author of the Joe Hannibal private eye novels, and the writers of several Western tales of late.

This episode in Laramie's life is one blistering read from start to finish. Things happen from the outset, and they don't stop happening. I also enjoyed the fact that the story is set among frozen mountains instead on the range in or some two-bit backwater town that seem to be the settings for a lot of Westerns. The West includes a lot of inhospitable real estate, deserts as well as winter wildernesses. Jack London explored a lot of those.

I also loved the town, Silver Gulch, that has given up the ghost after the mines petered out and times got hard. Dundee is a wonderfully evocative reader and plunks his readers squarely down in the center of the decaying town and shows them the bark on those people who haven't quite moved on yet.

The story unfolds naturally, and the characters involved in the tale are all realistically motivated, though most of them on a really base nature that can be a common denominator when many of the conventions of civilization are ripped away.

Dundee doesn't write for the faint-hearted. One of his scenes is going to live on inside my head way past its welcome, I assure you. This vision of the Old West and the hard men that lived it is as hard-boiled as they come. I've read most of Dundee's work, and I'm looking forward to more of his Westerns as well as more private eye stories.

A tense gritty thriller of a western. When Cash Laramie enters a small mining town to take a no-good bank robber prisoner, he ends up with two more travellers. A couple of whores who have had enough of being used and want out. Unfortunately the miners aren't willing to let the lawman take the only two women in the rough little town away from them. Add to that, a blizzard and a rabid wolf, and it looks as if Cash Laramie might have bitten off more than he can chew. Especially when you throw in a ruthless bounty hunter who is doggedly following them. The story is a bit on the short side, but well worth the read.

This book is a feature length story based around Edward A. Grainger's hard-bitten US Marshal Cash Laramie. I've seen the name Wayne Dundee before but have never read any of his work. I have to admit I was a bit worried about read a story about a character I enjoy that is written by a different author.

If you haven't read any of the Cash Laramie stories it will not lessen your enjoyment of this book. This is cowboy fiction plain and simple. Don't walk away. It isn't quite that simple. Reading this book made me think I was sitting on the sofa with my dad brandishing my plastic Colt at the TV. At the same time though this feels like a Hardboiled crime novel that just happens to be set in the Old West.

There is not the same feel about this book as I found with the previous Cash stories. This is certainly a character deserving of a longer story and this one does him justice. I was engrossed from start to finish with the characters and the plot. If I have one criticism of this book, I'd have to say that it felt a little short and missing a final confrontation, one with a dirty great gun fight.

It doesn't take more than a couple of hours to read this book and it costs about the same as a filter coffee so you don't really have an excuse not to give this story a try.

The world of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles continues to expand. A few weeks ago, Heath Lowrance took the handles on Gideon to craft the novella, Miles to Little Ridge.

Now, he let's accomplished western writer, Wayne Dundee take Cash for a spin in Manhunter's Mountain.

Cash arrives in a worn out mining town looking for an escapee. In true Cash style, he takes little gruff off the locals in his drive to execute his duty. Of course, things don't always go as planned, and a burned out saloon later he has the town whores in tow as well.

A gang of miners out to get the women back, a pair of men looking to take the women elsewhere for an easier life away from the derelict town, and a ruthless bounty hunter out for the escapee set on their trail.

Mr. Dundee stays true to Cash, and adds his touch to the story, setting and other characters rather than altering the Marshall. The established character, created by David Cranmer as Edward A Grainger, remains true to form and holds the story together with his decisive action and dogged tenacity. However, it is the support characters that shape and mold the tale.

Faye and Little Red, whores who see a way out, are intriguing characters. Full of strength and doubt. Rough lives have led them to a trapped existence, but they come across and determined and capable despite initial images. Dundee also creates a compelling and worthy opponent in the form of bounty hunter, Cole Bouchet. Capable and ruthless, he challenges the Marshall.

Reading a second story in a longer form made me want more tales of this length. In Manhunter's Mountain the character of Cash remains true, but his world and his legend grow with a tale full of allies and adversaries worthy of his best.

Edward Grainger's(David Cranmer) Cash Laramie finds himself with a couple of prostitutes under his wing as he escorts a prisoner down a mountainside. He's helping them make a new start after they lost their home in a "bit of trouble" when he arrested the criminal in the dying old mine town. The miners are not happy that he's taking the only two women in town with him and winter approaching fast.

Mother Nature conspires against old Cash, throwing an early storm on them.

He's got to dodge the group of miners after them, keep a prisoner known for escaping in tow, and get them through the brutal cold.

Just a regular day for old Cash.

Nice, fast moving western from Wayne D. Dundee, a writer I just recently discovered.