Ralph Compton Stryker's Revenge [Mass Market Paperback]

Ralph Compton (Author), Joseph A. West (Author)

Book Description

Series: RALPH COMPTON | Publication Date: February 2, 2010

USA Today Bestselling Phenomenon

Lieutenant Steve Stryker has a score to settle with Rake Pierce, who's running guns to the Apaches. Pierce left him a scarred man and ruined his life. Now it's payback time...

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ralph Compton stood six-foot-eight without his boots. He worked as a musician, a radio announcer, a songwriter, and a newspaper columnist. His first novel, The Goodnight Trail, was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer Award for best debut novel. He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series.
As a little boy growing up in a small fishing village in Scotland, Joseph West enjoyed many happy Saturday mornings at the local cinema in the company of Roy and Gene and Hoppy. His lifelong ambition was to become a cowboy, but he was sidetracked by a career in law enforcement and journalism. He now resides with his wife and daughter in Palm Beach, Florida, where he enjoys horse riding, cowboy action shooting, and studying Western history.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Signet; Original edition (February 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451228871
• ISBN-13: 978-0451228871
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #651,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joe West was born and raised in the seaside town of Saltcoats in Scotland. At 19 he became a police officer, but soon turned his love of writing into a career as a journalist, working for the Daily Mirror in London among others. In 1972 West was recruited as a reporter for the National Enquirer, and began working in the United States. Traveling the world in search of stories, West almost froze to death on an Alaska mountain, and a spider bite nearly killed him in the Amazon rainforest. 'I swelled up like a balloon and turned a real pretty violet color,' he recalls.
Now a full-time novelist, West and his wife Emily reside in sunny Palm Beach, Florida, where he enjoys tamer pursuits like canoeing the alligator-infested swamps of the Everglades. His 22-year-old daughter Alexandria attends a local college where she studies forensic technology. She will have absolutely nothing to do with canoes and alligators.
West researches the settings of his novels by exploring the terrain in person, usually with little more than a sleeping bag and a can of coffee.
Recently he and Emily celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at the Lodge in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, a gift from the students at Rio Rancho High School who use West's first novel as a textbook. They then spent a month in the mountains and deserts of New Mexico, often pitching their tent where the air is thin at 9,000 feet above the flat.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars APACHES AGAINST CAVALRY, May 13, 2010

By 

Kay's Husband (Virginia, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ralph Compton Stryker's Revenge (Mass Market Paperback)

Another 'historical novel' from Signet issued under Ralph Compton's name, written by an excellent western writer, Joseph A. West. 'Historical novel' fits these large books under the Compton name as they far exceed in pages what we old timers used call westerns.

Joe West always writes excellent novels and no less so with this big book. Essentially we have a very disfigured officer (Lt. Steve Stryker) in Apache country trying to keep his troop and some civilians alive during a bloody and brutal Apache outbreak. He is outgunned and outnumbered with death surrounding him on all sides. He has lost his face through injury, his fiance due to the same disfigurement, lost any reasonable chance of any promotion beyond Captain, lost his chance at desk duty as aide to his late fiance's father in Washington, and he eventually loses his right-hand man and scout (Joe Hogg) due to the scout being killed by these same marauding Apaches. Though Lt. Stryker is a capable man and officer he begins to realize just how much he counted on Joe Hogg and he may soon loose his own life as well. All troops in the command other than Stryker's in the field have evacuated all the forts in Stryker's area so wherever Lt. Stryker moves he is always out manned and out gunned always on the defensive. Can he continue to hold things together? Will he be able to avoid a massacre at the hands of the determined and very capable Apaches? Will he ever catch the renegade running guns to the Apaches, the very same man who disfigured him? Read on to find out.

I say again another very good book by Joseph A. West. Pick some of these Compton books up by Mr. West and enjoy a very talented writer's view of the "west".

As some of you may not know, Ralph Compton died several years back but Signet continues to issue new books under his name. Supposedly from outlines left by Mr. Compton, which Mr. Compton must have been very resourceful to have left that many outlines. However, books by Zane Grey continued to roll off the presses for at least 20 years after his demise, and we all know the story with books by the family of Louis L'Amour, so anything is possible. I choose to believe that Mr. West pretty much developed this story on his own, with editorial guidelines possibly, but still this is pure Joseph A. West at his best. Don't miss this one or any of the other ones Mr. West has recently written under both his own name and the 'Ralph Cotton' umbrella.

Ler'r rip pards.

Semper Fi.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Western Review, March 18, 2010

By 

H. Lichner (El Paso, Tx USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ralph Compton Stryker's Revenge (Mass Market Paperback)

I found this book very intersting due to the story's plot concerning the main character. Styrker's inner struggle with his injurys, as well as his emotional feelings made an intersting read. I hope others enjoy this book as much as I did.