Wednesday 16 August 2017

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: RETURN OF THE GUN HAWK by BRAD DENNISON



Highly-successful western author Brad Dennison (who shares my admiration for A.B. Guthrie’s THE BIG SKY) does have a personal favourite of his westerns. It’s RETURN OF THE GUNHAWK, the 3rd in his McCABE series. The story follows Johnny McCabe, the ‘gunhawk’ of the title - former Texas Ranger and gunfighter turned cattle rancher - to California and a reunion with a brother he hasn’t seen for 17 years.
For images I thought of westerns based around brothers, from TV shows like BONANZA, 

THE BIG VALLEY


 and LANCER


 to movies like THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER.


Johnny McCabe’s role as a Texas Ranger who became a cattle baron reminded me of the legendary CHARLES GOODNIGHT (1836-1929.)


CHARLES GOODNIGHT in 1860

Goodnight served as a ranger, helping rescue Cynthia Ann Parker from the Comanches in 1860. Later he blazed the Goodnight-Loving cattle trail between Texas and Colorado with his partner OLIVER LOVING, killed by Comanches in 1867. 


OLIVER LOVING 

Goodnight founded the first ranch in the Texas Panhandle, the JRA Ranch, in 1876, and is credited with inventing the chuck wagon.

 

Whilst THE LONG TRAIL (which I blogged about recently) has a mere 110 5 star reviews, the last time I looked, RETURN OF THE GUNHAWK has 156! Reviews:
‘This series can be compared to Lonesome Dove.’
‘Great story-telling… hard to put down.’
‘Wonderful.’
‘This series of books is so good I feel like I know the characters.’
‘I wanted to turn the pages, but didn't want the story to end! … I plan to read the series and hope all are like this story!’
‘Brad Dennison writes the best stories. This should be a T.V. series… Characters are so well developed.’
 ‘This whole series was fantastic! Brad, you are an amazing writer. You stand with the greats, Zane Gray, Louis L'Amour.’


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