Westerns, as it is with true
crime, pulp fiction, superhero fantasy, and romance, fit and conform within the
tropes of their genre: the shootout, the ride into town, the grizzled vet, the whole
lone man-on-a-mission. Yet “genre” does not necessarily need to be “generic.”
Unfortunately, the latter is indeed the case with Stephen Wade’s latest, GUNFIGHTER’S
LAW.
GUNFIGHTER’S LAW is an
ultra-fast, simplistic narrative. Steady and stable Joe Cook heeds his father’s
dying wish to locate their prodigal, Pete. Along the way, Joe hires a former
Texas Ranger and a band of Mexican outlaws to raid Ellistown, where Pete might
be laying out. Ellistown, of course, resides under the hard watch and heavy
laws of Noah Ellis, a baddie that more-than-resembles Gene Hackman’s character
from the fantastic film THE QUICK AND THE DEAD. Joe learns that his mission
might not be a simple recovery, but instead a rescue.
Wade keeps the pace up,
doing away with inward narrative and backstory, focusing instead on the action
at hand, making GUNFIGHTER’S LAW read like the novelization of a TV movie. A
note of positive criticism, Wade does play, and does it well, with betrayals
and allegiance changing.
My thanks to NetGalley and Pioneering
Press for the advance copy of the book, although I wish I found the story deeper
and more compelling. GUNFIGHTER’S LAW almost read like a YA tale; something a
little too straight and ordinary for a cowboy who is used to Louis L’Amour and Elmore
Leonard. Westerns are a great genre; this read is just too generic.
As Always,
theJOE
