Sons and Gunslicks

Where is Emily Greatheart? The elegant young lady from Denver had gone to Arizona to meet her dead fiancé's mother and vanished. Only a bloodstained jacket was found in an abandoned spring buggy hired from the Pike's Crossing livery stable ... Emily's father, Big Jack Greatheart, ex-marshal and one-time tamer of brawling boom towns, lies in bed in Colorado, frustratingly crippled by arthritis and a skeleton of his former self. So he calls on ex-Pinkerton detective Joshua Dillard, who follows a cold trail and hot impulses into battle against ambitious cattleman Bart Waller and his gun-handy, womanizing son, Vincent. No wonder he's soon up to his reckless neck in two-fisted, lead-slinging trouble! "I've talked a bit about Black Horse Westerns continuing the tradition of publishing fine westerns ... and this title was no exception. Part detective story, part western it makes up in story what it lacked in length and US distribution. There's a traditional voice here - almost too traditional in some ways - but it's done in a smooth way, and the author doesn't allow it to get in the way of the story, which moves at near breakneck pace ... Worth the time of tracking it down, this is a great example of why Black Horse continues to have success." - Russell Davis, past judge of Spur and Western Heritage Awards BONUS FEATURE: "Crime Hits the Trail" ... a look at genre crossovers.