Wednesday 3 October 2018

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: VALLEY OF THUNDER by SAM CLANCY (BRENT TOWNS)

Brent Towns (who also writes as B. S. Dunn, Jake Henry, and Sam Clancy) tells me an overall favourite of his novels is VALLEY OF THUNDER by Sam Clancy. ‘I really enjoy writing about Josh Ford.’

Marshal Josh Ford investigates a wagon train that has disappeared in the wilderness of Montana and the Pacific North West. He comes up against a brutal autocrat who rules the area with his private army, rather like the historical Henry Plummer.

WILLIAM HENRY HANDY PLUMMER was born in 1832 in Addison, Maine. In 1852, aged 19, he headed west to the California gold fields. In 1856, he was elected sheriff and city manager in Nevada City, California. His tenure as sheriff ended in controversy a year later when he shot and killed John Vedder. Convicted of second-degree murder, he served time in San Quentin Prison but was granted a pardon due to poor health as he was suffering from tuberculosis.


Plummer left California and drifted across the Pacific Northwest. In 1862 he arrived in Bannack, Montana, where gold had been recently discovered. Despite (or perhaps because of) having killed several men in gun duels he was elected sheriff of Bannack.
Between October and December 1863, the rate of robberies and murders in the area increased significantly. Local citizens formed the Vigilance Committee of Alder Gulch in Virginia City, Montana. Between January 4 and February 3, 1864, the vigilantes arrested and summarily executed at least 20 alleged ‘road agents.’ One was ‘Erastus Red’ Yeager. Before his hanging, Yeager made a complete confession, naming Henry Plummer as leader of the gang, ironically nicknamed ‘The Innocents.’ At their peak it’s claimed ‘The Innocents’ numbered almost 200 men. One of their specialities was to waylay stages that had been marked with chalk by Plummer’s informants, indicating they carried gold.
Plummer was arrested by the vigilantes on the morning of January 10, 1864. Standing before his captors, Plummer asked them, ‘You wouldn’t hang your own sheriff, would you?’
They would and did – the same day.
Plummer was given a posthumous trial in 1993 which led to a mistrial. The jury was split 6-6.
I’d expected Plummer to feature quite a lot in western movies and TV but I could only find him being portrayed by TOM McKEE in an episode of ‘Tales of Wells Fargo’ and JOHN DEHNER in an episode of ‘Stories of the Century.’


John Dehner as Henry Plummer

The Nez Perce Indians also feature in VALLEY OF THUNDER. These remarkable people, and particularly the tragic war they fought against the white man in 1877, deserve at least one separate blog.


The wagon train aspect reminded me of movies like MEEKS CUTOFF




and one of my favourite westerns, John Ford’s lyrical masterpiece ‘WAGONMASTER.’


Ward Bond, Jane Darwell and Russell Simpson in ‘Wagonmaster

VALLEY OF THUNDER reviews:
‘A great read.’

‘Amazing.'

‘The descriptive writing is superb and I saw each landscape and action sequence in full technicolour as though it were playing out on a cinema screen. There was no fat in this story, no padding. It promised sweeping adventure and it delivered in spades.’

‘A great adventure yarn.’

https://www.amazon.com/Valley-Thunder-Black-Horse-Western-ebook/dp/B01N9XDKWL/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492581090&sr=1-1&keywords=valley+of+thunder+sam+clancy

and https://www.amazon.co.uk/Valley-Thunder-Black-Horse-Western-ebook/dp/B01N9XDKWL/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

No comments:

Post a Comment