TV Series: Daredevil

I liked Daredevil, the Marvel TV series about the much-underrated superhero. It is dark, gritty, violent, flawed and oddly unsettling, perhaps because I never quite knew what was going to happen next. I was on tenterhooks through the first season. Besides, I've always been partial to Daredevil, just as I am to Batman, the Hulk and Wolverine.

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Going back, I liked the 2003 Daredevil film because it lived up to my comic-book image of The Man Without Fear. Ben Affleck was convincing as Matt Murdock—the blind lawyer by day and vigilante by night. For many years, I hoped there would be a sequel. There wasn't. The TV series more than makes up for the gap.

British actor Charlie Cox steps convincingly into Affleck's shoes and raises hell in Hell's Kitchen, the dark side of Manhattan. But this Daredevil is not infallible. He makes mistakes and gets walloped a few times, including by his arch-enemy Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, who clobbers him much as Bane does Batman in The Dark Knight Rises. Like Batman, the caped crusader of Gotham City, Daredevil falls only to rise stronger, wiser and more determined.

A little wisdom is what Daredevil picks up after his often impulsive and bloody fights with local thugs, junkies, kidnappers and extortionists. With every episode, he learns more about the masterminds behind his battles—the Russian mafia, the Japanese Yakuza and Chinese gangsters, and eventually Fisk himself—who want to carve up Hell's Kitchen between them. Slowly, he also learns how to stay one step ahead of his ruthless enemies.

A television series provides more room for longer stories, and Daredevil gives us much more than the heroics of its vigilante. It also offers glimpses into the backstories of familiar characters—Matt Murdock, his friend and law partner Foggy Nelson, their first client-turned-secretary Karen Page, crime reporter Ben Urich and Wilson Fisk—which adds depth, twists and suspense to the story.

Daredevil is stark and realistic, with a degree of brutality not common in superhero films. Murdock and Fisk, while representing good and evil, share troubled childhoods and lives haunted by demons of the past. This prompts Hell's Kitchen's supervillain to suggest that the two men aren't so different from each other. Yet each has his own reasons for wanting to make the neighbourhood a better place.

As Daredevil, Cox is every bit as good as Affleck, while, as Kingpin, Vincent D'Onofrio is several heads above Michael Clarke Duncan in the film version. What works particularly well is his depiction of the bald Kingpin as a businessman who is both vicious and vulnerable. He reeks of evil and yet doesn't necessarily seem like one, if that makes any sense.

Finally, what I found particularly appealing about Daredevil is the music—the opening theme and the background score that plays during critical moments, heightening the thrill and tension. It complements a series that, for me, deserved more recognition.

Daredevil remains one of the darker and more compelling superhero adaptations I've watched. It isn't simply about a man in a costume beating up bad guys; beneath the violence is a story about justice, loyalty, morality, and two damaged men who see the world very differently.

Blaze! Red Rock Rampage by Ben Boulden, 2017

Review & Interview

“I have no predilection about dropping you where you stand,” J.D. said. “Put the man down, gently as you would your breakfast egg, then raise your hands as high as God allows.”

© Rough Edges Press

I picked up Red Rock Rampage—No.15 in the Blaze! Adult Western Series—for three reasons. One, it's written by writer-blogger Ben Boulden whose reviews I read with much interest. Two, it's a western and packed with action, romance, and adventure. And three, it recounts the daring exploits of a husband-and-wife team of gunfighters I’d never heard of.

Red Rock Rampage is a fine debut by Ben. I read the book in three sittings, which I seldom do now. And I look forward to read more in the series, both by him and other writers.

A few pages into the book and I found myself riding at a distance behind bounty hunters J.D. and his beautiful wife Kate on their journey to Small Basin. Utah. The couple is on the trail of a gang of robbers who have been holding up trains in Arizona. They have been hired by a railway company whose northern route has been the target of the marauders.

If J.D. and Kate thought it would be a simple case of track and nab, they were mistaken. Small Basin turns out to be as hostile as an inhospitable desert under a ruthless sun. The settlement and the surrounding area are ruled by a renegade Mormon patriarch called Levi Skousen and his hired gunmen, and crooked Sheriff Allred who wants them to keep riding. The town is inhabited by a bunch of unfriendly polygamists and dirt farmers.

But our bounty hunters have no plans to vamoose now that they have tracked down their prey. And that’s when their troubles begin.

Skousen has kidnapped two young girls with the intention of adding them to his harem of twenty wives. One of the girls belongs to a poor Mexican settlement, the other has a thing for the outlaw’s estranged son. Suddenly, J.D. and Kate are forced to alter their plan and rescue the damsels with help from a priest who can shoot.

Red Rock Rampage, published by Rough Edges Press, is 115 pages of twists and turns, surprises and ambushes, and humour and excitement all the way. It’s a realistic portrayal of the Old West’s only husband-and-wife gunfighters whose derring-do and skill with guns does not hide their vulnerability. They find themselves in a tight corner more than once. When J.D. is caught and beaten up badly, Kate knows what she must do. The woman’s got guts. At one point I found myself thinking, “Come on, you should’ve seen it coming.” That they don’t adds to the reality of the plot, the descriptions, and the well-drawn characters.

I liked the book a lot, as much for Ben Boulden’s narrative style and relentless pace as for J.D. and Kate’s passion for each other and for adventure. They share a telepathic bond from the beginning. It lent a nice touch to this unusual western tale.

Recommended.

'I genuinely enjoy telling myself stories'

Photo by Kara Boulden

Ben Boulden, a trained accountant by profession, writes a column and regularly reviews mystery, crime, and thrillers for Mystery Scene Magazine. His essays, ‘Reading Ed Gorman’ and ‘Easy to Read: A Story of Rick Ollerman’ have been published in the Stark House Press editions of The Autumn Dead/The Night Remembers by Ed Gorman and Truth Always Kills by Rick Ollerman, respectively. He also regularly reviews books and interviews authors at his blog Gravetapping. Ben lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife and daughter.

He spoke to the 3Cs about his debut novel in an email interview, which is split into three parts: the book, the characters and setting, and the author.

THE BOOK

Ben, why did you choose to make your writing debut with the Blaze! Adult Western Series? Why not a standalone western?
A really good question. A year ago I was interviewing Stephen Mertz, creator of Blaze!, for my blog Gravetapping and when everything was complete—questions asked and answered, formatted and posted—Steve asked if I would like to try writing a Blaze! novel. No guarantee of publication, but I unhesitatingly said, “Yes” and everything worked out. Pure blind luck aided by the kindness of Steve Mertz.

What made you pick the title Red Rock Rampage? How did you hit upon the idea?
The title was the last thing I came up with. The story was mostly complete, still lovingly titled “Untitled Blaze”, when Red Rock Rampage sprang into my head. It fit the setting, the painted rock badlands of Southern Utah, and the genre; rampaging desperados, outlaws. I especially liked the smooth alliteration.

The idea for the story arrived in a hurry. I knew I wanted it in Utah, where I’ve lived most of my life, and I narrowed it down to Southern Utah because of the beautiful, desolate setting. It was, and probably still is, wilder than Northern Utah; fewer people and less law. And, of course, it was and still is a hotbed of plural marriage. So

I took what I knew about the setting—it is called Utah’s Dixie because someone in Salt Lake City decided its arid landscape was perfect for growing cotton. It wasn’t. There was either too little water, or too much water (in the form of flash floods) and as far as I know there was never a successful crop. So I created a villain who, not satisfied with his failure as a cotton grower, found other means to gain wealth. The rest of the story bloomed from there.

You are more than familiar with western fiction. And yet, did you have to do any research for your book?
I  did some research for RRR. Mostly about the early Mormon pioneers sent from Salt Lake City to the Southwestern corner of current day Utah to grow cotton. My wife and I lived in a small college town in the area several years ago while I studied for my master’s degree and that, mixed with many trips to Canyonlands National Park (in Southeastern Utah) as a child with my parents, gave me a grasp to imagine the setting.

Were you influenced by other western fiction authors while writing Red Rock Rampage?
I don’t think it shows, but my major influence was Ed Gorman’s work. The way he develops characters, especially women, in his Western novels amazes me. Gentle, intelligent, long suffering, horny, angry, and everything else that makes a person a person.

I also followed two pieces of advice that came to me second hand, both heavily paraphrased. Ed Gorman wrote, on more than one occasion, that he owed his career to Max Allan Collins who told him to write a novel like every chapter was a short story to keep from becoming overwhelmed. And Stephen Mertz told me that Don Pendleton always said you should write, no matter what you’re writing, like it is a serious and important work.

In spite of consistent action, the narrative has an even and unhurried pace. Did you plan it that way or did it flow as you wrote?
I wanted the narrative to have a nice fluid pace, but to say I planned it from scene-to-scene (beyond hoping it worked) wouldn’t be accurate. Although I worked heavily to keep it tight and unhurried throughout the writing and then rewriting processes. I’m glad it worked. And I’m glad you told me since I still have doubts about it late at night.

Is there any part of the story or character that you wish you’d written differently?
Maybe  one. A gunny named Jackson Rockwell, who was originally intended to be the fictional brother of the Mormon gunfighter Orrin Porter Rockwell, who, as the story developed took a smaller role than I originally planned. I think the story would have benefited from developing JR’s character more as I had originally intended. Instead he became more of a stock villain with a mean streak and a desire to make his name by gunning down J.D.

CHARACTERS & SETTING
 
Both J.D. and Kate are very likeable and, in a certain way, vulnerable too. What were your thoughts as you wrote about the husband-wife gunfighters?
J.D. and Kate were the best part of writing Red Rock Rampage. I fell in a kind of literary puppy-love with Kate. Tough, smart, kind, beautiful. And I genuinely liked J.D. Although, based on the beatings I put J.D. through there may have been some jealousy at work (I hope I’m kidding). I liked the give and take between the two, and my favorite scenes are where both are present.

I couldn’t help noticing that Kate and J.D. seem to have the perfect marriage, which I felt was a great selling point. Of course, I’m basing my opinion on just this one Blaze! novel. Is that how they are in the rest of the series?
It is, I think. I’ve only read a couple of the other books in the series. I’m actually reading Stephen Mertz’s The Christmas Journey right now. But J.D. and Kate have something of a dream relationship. They have their moments, mostly when J.D. is, or isn’t, doing something Kate feels strongly about. Steve really deserves some kudos for creating this pair.

Kate is brave and determined, and more than capable of taking care of herself. I, for one, thought she stole the show. Would that be a fair assessment?
Very  fair assessment. Kate’s character really spoke to me. As I was writing the story her role, both as the ethical guide and tough as nails get things done kind of person, developed beyond what I had originally intended. In a sense, RRR is more her novel than J.D.’s.

How did you come to create Brother Skousen as the evil and lustful Mormon patriarch who terrorises young women?
He was the first villain I created for the story. In a sense, and I don’t mean this to be demeaning or derogatory to early-Mormon history, he is a composite character of the stereotypical Mormon leader. Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, etc. who practiced polygamy for a stated reason—to take care of the older women without a man (Sister Mary in the story)—but actually seemed to have an abundance of attractive 17 year old wives who, I’m sure, had a line of young male suitors. But, Skousen is a true scoundrel and many of the early Mormon leaders did some amazing things, like create the infrastructure for the American West to be settled and develop the way it did.

How easy or difficult was it to capture the descriptions of the settlement of Small Basin, Utah, and the surrounding area?
It was really fun and fairly easy. It all came out of my imagination based on my experiences in the Southern Utah landscape. The canyons with painted rock, red dirt, the Fremont Indian ruins, many still awaiting discovery, all captured my imagination as a boy and it still does today. I hope I was able to describe the wonder of the place, even a little.

THE AUTHOR
 
Ben, can you briefly take us through your journey as a writer and an author?
I've been writing fiction since my early teens and over the past six or seven years I gave up the idea of seriously pursuing publication. I had a few very small successes placing short stories in tiny literary magazines (circulation less than ten, probably) in the early-2000s, but my writing plateaued. Each story had the same flaws as the one before. Not developed quite right, out of sync narrative, underdeveloped characters, etc.

So I started reviewing novels and short stories, first for a website, then my own blog and finally for Mystery Scene Magazine, to see if critically reading the work of successful writers would help my own writing. And it did, but not exactly the way I expected. I learned a bunch about structure, and even more about style, but the knowledge was still a little hazy. Then I started writing individual scenes, not for publication, but rather for my own amusement, about anything that caught my fancy. A mother mourning a child, a firefight, cowboys finding a flashlight. This more than anything improved my fiction writing, but I was still an unbeliever.

Then, an amazing thing happened, which I talked about in a question above, Stephen Mertz—creator of Blaze!—asked if I would be interested in writing a Blaze! novel. And I did. And Rough Edges Press published it. My writing life, I hesitate to call it a career, has been one filled with mostly work and a few lucky breaks. The first was Ed Gorman’s unflagging support of my critical writing and his help getting me a chance to write for Mystery Scene and then Steve Mertz’s simple question. I owe them both more than I can say.

How would you describe the experience of writing, and especially writing a book?
Hard, but satisfying. I genuinely enjoy telling myself stories, but the daily grind of working all day, then coming home and writing is difficult. The self-doubt is hard, too. Never knowing if something is good, or even readable, as I write and rewrite. But as satisfying as anything I’ve ever done when I type “the end” after the last paragraph. And then as I started revisions, actually enjoying the story.

Where, when, and how often do you write?
I have a weekly goal of 2,500 to 3,000 words. I often don’t make it, but I try. I have a tiny office in the house, cold in the winter and hot in the summer, where I do part of my writing. I also write at the kitchen table, which is where I am now. I travel some for work, and I write in hotel rooms at night when I’m away.

I may write for fifteen minutes or two or three hours, depending on my schedule. On weekends I write in the morning, and during the week I write in the evening. It all depends, but it would be nice if I could find a rhythm with a defined schedule. 5–7 AM, or something. I think it would increase my productivity, but I haven’t been able to make it happen yet.

How long did it take you to write Red Rock Rampage? Can you take us through the process from the time you conceived of the story idea?
I started planning the story—doing a little research—and basically stalling the actual writing in mid-April, 2016 and I turned the final draft into the editor the first week of August. So, from that first idea to the finished product was about 3-1/2 months. The first few chapters went like wildfire and there were a few spots in the story where I found myself lost in those murky middle portions. I knew where I wanted to go, but my map disappeared. When that happened I stopped writing for a few days, once for nearly a week, and thought about the story, what made sense, what J.D. and Kate would be inclined to do. And I always figured a way forward. And it always felt natural to me. Something that much of my earlier writing didn’t have.

What can your readers expect after your brilliant debut—more in the Blaze! series or something else, perhaps?
I’m working, rather slowly, on another Blaze! novel now. It’s been slow for a few reasons. My work schedule has been unusual the last few months and I have been able to gain a rhythm on the story. But I like the story, and I’m hoping to have it finished in a few months. I just finished a hardboiled crime short story that I like a bunch. I’m not sure what is going to happen with it, but it felt great writing “the end” a few nights ago.

Once I finish my next Blaze! novel I may try something of my own. I have a few ideas percolating, mostly western and crime. We’ll see. But I’m excited that things are looking bright (in a very small way) for me.

Who are some of your favourite genre authors? Which books have influenced your writing?
I’ve already mentioned Ed Gorman. He is probably one of the most underrated writers of his generation. His works tends to be dark, which may be a reason it hasn’t caught on like I think it should, but he is well worth reading. Especially is mystery and western fiction.

Ron Faust is another favorite. No one writes better, more meaningful, or even beautiful prose than Faust did. He didn’t write enough, only 15 novels over four decades, but if you ever find anything with his name on its cover, buy it, steal it, or do whatever you have to do to get it home.

What were your thoughts when you first held Red Rock Rampage in your hand?
Woohoo! Then disbelief. Then woohoo! Then, man, I hope a few people like it.

Finally, Ben, what is your advice to people like me who aspire to publish someday?
Keep at it. I had given up, writing snippets of fiction here and there for my own amusement, but an amazing thing happened. I wrote a book, it was published. And I’m nothing special. Maybe lucky, but not special. So keep writing and something will come.

Thank you, Ben.

The Face on the Milk Carton: A secondhand book find

The Face on the Milk Carton—such an unusual title. I had no hesitation in picking up the paperback from a neat row of secondhand books at Smoker's Corner, the half-a-century-old bookstall in the Fort area of South Mumbai that has since closed down. I like a surprise catch. I rarely misjudge one.

Until then, I hadn't heard of American author Caroline B. Cooney, who wrote this award-winning 1990 novel, the first in her Janie Johnson series. The book was later adapted into a television film.

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As you can probably tell from the title and cover, The Face on the Milk Carton is about the mystery of a missing child. Janie Johnson is a teenager who one day sees the face of a little girl on a milk carton and is stunned to recognise herself in the photograph. The child had disappeared from a shopping mall in New Jersey twelve years earlier.

I plan to read the book soon, even though it is written for young adults and I don't particularly like stories about missing children. But I'm curious. How does a girl come to recognise herself as a missing child? And what happens when she begins to suspect that the parents she has always known may not be her real parents?

The author has said that the idea for the novel came to her after she saw a poster of a missing three-year-old child at LaGuardia Airport. The girl had been missing for 15 years. Cooney wondered who might recognise a photograph of a child after so many years and realised that, perhaps, the person most likely to recognise the child could be the child herself. That simple but unsettling thought became the basis for The Face on the Milk Carton.

Cooney has been writing since 1979 and has published numerous novels for young adults across suspense, mystery, horror and romance. The Face on the Milk Carton, the first in her Janie Johnson series, was followed by several other books featuring the character. Her other works include The Vampire's Promise trilogy, the Losing Christina series and the Time Travelers Quartet. Her books have also won several awards and appeared on numerous book lists.

It's an intriguing premise, and I hadn't set out to look for a Caroline B. Cooney novel that day. It was simply one of those secondhand-book discoveries that make browsing worthwhile. Now I just have to read it and find out whether my surprise catch was as good as I thought it was.

Have you read Caroline B. Cooney's novels?

History, My Story

Last year, I sent this nostalgic piece to an online poetry website. This morning, I received a polite and sympathetic rejection of my submission as well as an encouragement to submit again any time I liked. I’m grateful to the editor for considering my work—one of over a hundred thousand he receives every year. His is a tough call. I will continue to write—and write better, hopefully—and continue to send out my stuff. Hope springs from the roster of famous writers who were repeatedly rejected before they were first published. I’m still taking guard at the starting block of creative writing.

Here is the slightly modified version of my poem History, My Story.

Chronicle of past times
and all of human history.
Record of peoples and events
glorious and dark.

My beloved subject
in high school and after.
Till a teacher's misdemeanour
makes me hate it, almost.

Bell rings, class out
rushing down the aisle.
He grabs me by the collar
slams me against the wall.

What did I do?" A fearful cry
"How dare you distract!" he rages.
Pleading look, sniggering mates
they wink and smile. 

Calendars later, I still remember
the day, the date, the pain.
'twas a history lesson
I will never forget.


© Prashant C. Trikannad

The Dictators by Pablo Neruda

An odor has remained among the sugarcane:
a mixture of blood and body, a penetrating
petal that brings nausea.

Between the coconut palms the graves are full
of ruined bones, of speechless death-rattles.

The delicate dictator is talking
with top hats, gold braid, and collars.

The tiny palace gleams like a watch
and the rapid laughs with gloves on
cross the corridors at times
and join the dead voices
and the blue mouths freshly buried.

The weeping cannot be seen, like a plant
whose seeds fall endlessly on the earth,
whose large blind leaves grow even without light.

Hatred has grown scale on scale,
blow on blow, in the ghastly water of the swamp,
with a snout full of ooze and silence.

Pablo Neruda, 1904-1973. Photo: Wikimedia

In the opening lines of his poem The Dictators, the Nobel laureate, poet, writer, diplomat and political activist expresses his anguish at the oppression of the Chilean people by dictators as well as democratic rulers who act like dictators. The lines speak of torture, death and decay. Pablo Neruda paints a stark and vivid picture of life under despotic regimes, such as those led by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who is believed to have ordered the poet's death.

Dictators, whether Pinochet, Hitler, Pol Pot or Idi Amin, put down violent and nonviolent resistance by kidnapping, torturing and executing political opponents and innocent civilians, and ruling with an iron fist. Pinochet overthrew the democratically-elected socialist President Salvador Allende in a CIA-instigated coup in 1973 and eliminated thousands of left-wing activists, in his nearly two-decade long misrule.

The cruelty of tyranny had a profound impact on Neruda who recreates the horror in those opening lines — where he talks about the stench of dead bodies lying in pools of blood in sugarcane fields, the breezy coconut plantations turning into unmarked graveyards, and spirited voices silenced in the throes of death.

Neruda champions the cause of his people and raises a battle cry against fascism, both unconcealed and disguised, and warns of the vile and destructive powers of totalitarian regimes. His message is: Absolute power dehumanises absolutely.

But does a political leader have to be a military dictator and wear "top hats, gold braid, and collars" in order to clamp down on resistance? Can he not sow seeds of fear, hatred, and confusion wearing a suit and tie, and a facade of decency and decorum?


Note: For more Friday's Forgotten Books, visit Patti Abbott's blog Pattinase.

3:10 to Yuma, 2007

Dan Evans to his elder son William: And you just remember that your old man walked Ben Wade to that station when nobody else would. 

The last scene in 3:10 to Yuma (2007) where notorious outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and peace-loving rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) dash out of a hotel, with bullets flying all around them, is reminiscent of Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) running out of an empty hovel in the final moments of the famous namesake film (1969).

The comparison ends there.

Cassidy and the Kid are thick as two thieves, literally, robbing banks and trains before meeting their fate in a Bolivian town. Wade and Evans start out as foes and in a fateful turn of events end up fighting a common enemy—Wade’s own murderous gang trying to rescue their boss.

Civil War veteran Evans, married with two young sons, reluctantly agrees to be part of the team escorting Wade from Bisbee to Contention—and put him on the 3:10 train to Yuma to face justice and the gallows. He desperately needs the $200 reward to clear a debt and save his land, even if it means risking his life for a gunslinger.

Predictably, things don’t go as planned. The journey is fraught with danger and high drama, as Indians and gunmen ambush the party and the shrewd and manipulative Wade plays mind games with Evans. In the end, the rancher is left alone with his captive. Does he succeed in putting Wade on the train?

Doc Potter: Is it true that you dynamited a wagon full of prospectors in the western territories last spring?

Ben Wade: No, that's a lie... It was a train full.

3:10 to Yuma is about one man’s courage and determination, and what he believes in, and another man’s last shot at redemption and in a way doffing his hat to the better man. The end turned out to be anticlimactic compared to what I expected. Bale and Crowe fit into the skin of their characters. Crowe plays the bad guy in a good way. I’m not sure villainous roles suit him. 

Directed by James Mangold (Cop Land, Girl, Interrupted, Kate & Leopold, The Wolverine), the two-hour long film has a galloping pace, plenty of gunfights, and cold-blooded killing. The action is in harmony with Marco Beltrami's music. The dialogue is crisp and clever, and almost philosophical in tone. Wade’s trigger-happy sidekick Charlie Prince (Ben Foster) and bounty hunter Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda) are the other actors to watch out for. Foster, in particular, plays a mean gunman to perfection.  

Ben Wade to Dan Evans: You know, squeezin' that watch won't stop time.

In spite of its contemporary filmmaking style, 3:10 to Yuma is in every sense a traditional western. I intend to watch the 1957 original starring Glenn Ford as Ben Wade and Van Heflin as Dan Evans, and read Elmore Leonard’s short story on which the film is based.

Recommended.

Red Rock Rampage by Ben Boulden, 2017

I enjoy reading Ben Boulden’s book reviews over at his blog Gravetapping. They are a solid piece of work—very focused, balanced, and well-written. And now, I very much look forward to reading his first novel Red Rock Rampage, which will be released on February 6.

Red Rock Rampage is the fifteenth book in the Blaze! Adult Western Series created by bestselling action-adventure author Stephen Mertz. It has a great cover, fascinating characters, plenty of action, and vivid descriptions.

In the novel, “J.D. and Kate Blaze ride into the settlement of Small Basin, Utah, on the trail of train robbers but soon discover that the town and the surrounding area are ruled by the iron fist of a renegade Mormon patriarch—and he has his eye on two beautiful young women he intends to make unwilling brides. Hired killers, corrupt lawmen, and brutal kidnappers mean a heap of trouble for the Old West's only husband-and-wife gunfighters. Forced to split up, Kate and J.D. have to battle their way back to each other to survive!”

J.D. and Kate Blaze are not your regular fictional heroes. According to series publisher Rough Edges Press owned by prolific author James Reasoner, “(They) are two of the deadliest gunfighters the Old West has ever seen. They also happen to be husband and wife, as passionate in their love for each other as they are in their quest for justice on the violent frontier!”

Ben, who reviews mystery, crime, and thrillers on his blog as well as for Mystery Scene Magazine, says his 115-page debut novel will be available as both an ebook (exclusive to Kindle and also available through Kindle Unlimited) and a trade paperback. You can pre-order the Kindle version for now.