SHADOW MAN by ANDREW McBRIDE
I’ve had 8 acclaimed western
novels published: CIMARRÓN brought out by Five Star Publishing as a hard back; COYOTE'S PEOPLE published by Five Star as a hard back and by Andride Press as an e.book; THE PEACEMAKER originally brought
out by Sundown Press and now available from Andride Press as an e.book; and CANYON OF THE DEAD, DEATH WEARS A STAR, DEATH SONG, THE ARIZONA KID and SHADOW MAN published by Crowood Press
as e.books – all of which are available to buy.
Today I thought I’d talk about SHADOW MAN.
It took me a couple of novels to find my stride and my ‘voice’ as a
novelist. But by THE ARIZONA KID and SHADOW MAN I think I’d achieved that.
I’d found a stripped-down writing style I liked. As a consequence I think THE ARIZONA KID and SHADOW MAN are the best overall of my first 5 novels.
SHADOW MAN BLURB:
His name was Calvin Taylor but the Apaches
called him Shadow Man. Now he was the guide for a wagon train of
down-on-their-luck farmers following the Trail of Lost Souls. But the trail
became a journey of death and Taylor found himself branded a renegade.
Only a man with his peculiar talent for
making enemies could find himself in the middle of the bitter war between white
man and Apache, being hunted by both sides. He was pursued across a savage land
by Loco's Mescaleros and vengeful posses determined to see him hang.
All 8 of my westerns are set in
the territories of Arizona and New Mexico in the 1870s and 1880s. All feature
CALVIN TAYLOR as the central character – former Indian scout turned man hunter,
Wells Fargo agent, Range Detective and sometimes sheriff.
In SHADOW MAN a young Calvin Taylor takes on the responsibility of
guiding a wagon train across the mountains and deserts of Southern New Mexico –
a challenging enough task given the rugged and inhospitable land the travellers
must cross, but made even more dangerous by the presence of renegade Mescalero
Apaches in the area.
Before
the establishment of the railways, the wagon train was the main form of
transportation to the west. People travelled west in wagons of various kinds,
from prairie schooners to the bulkier Conestogas, whilst debate raged over the
best means of hauling them – horses, mules, oxen?
Conestoga wagon
Prairie Schooner
The
Mescalero Apaches, ranging from central New Mexico to the Texas Big Bend and
deep into northern Mexico, had elements of both the western (wickiup-dwelling,
desert-living) Apaches and Plains (tipi-dwelling, buffalo-hunting) Indians in
their culture.
Mescalero Apaches 1885
They ate the roasted fruit of the mescal plant, and made liquor
from it, which is why Spanish
colonists named them the Mescaleros.
Wagon
trains have featured in many westerns, from RED RIVER to THE WAY WEST, THE LAST
WAGON and the recent MEEKS CUTOFF. There was, of course, the long-running TV
series WAGON TRAIN (1957-1965), where the wagonmaster was played by Ward Bond,
reprising his role in John Ford’s WAGONMASTER, one of my favourite western
movies.
Wagonmaster (1950)
I don’t think it’s too much of a giveaway to admit I modelled the
leader of the emigrants in SHADOW MAN
– Major Cameron – at least physically, on Ward Bond!
Robert Horton & Ward Bond in 'Wagon Train.'
SHADOW MAN EXTRACT
Rock walls rose on either side of Calvin
Taylor, bare and sheer. The heat trapped between had no air top stir it, was
solid, dizzying. The canyon crooked ahead, angling out of sight. Brush and haze
provided a myriad hiding places all around him. Taylor decided he’d been fool
enough for one day. He’d turn his horse about, quit this canyon and leave the
buzzards to their work.
Taylor was conscious of a ledge, shouldering
out of the rock wall behind and above him and how close he’d let himself get to
it. He began to knee his horse forward. Then something clattered on the trail
before him. Taylor looked that way. In the same instant he caught movement in
the corner of his eye. A man was suddenly standing on the ledge!
This man forward, yelling.
And sprang.
A wagon train in Denver, Colorado 1868
Reviews of SHADOW MAN: ‘A little masterpiece waiting for you to turn the
page.’
‘A rousing, gritty, action-adventure filled with
drama, suspense, betrayal, tragedy, and even a hint of romance…Here is a writer
to watch and to savor.’
REVIEWS OF MY WORK GENERALLY:
‘Tough, taut and elegant…
characterised by assured storytelling… the Calvin Taylor books are quietly remarkable
for their subtle reinvention of the western, eschewing clichés… the writing is
powerfully evocative of time and place.’
‘Superb… enthralling.’
CIMARRÓN:
‘Superlative… a classic western.’
‘McBride writes about the old West like he lived then, and he writes about Arizona like he lives there (which he doesn't, but I do.)’
"Cimarrón" showcases author Andrew McBride's enviable mastery of the genre.’
COYOTE'S PEOPLE:
‘An outstanding novel!’
‘Western fiction at its best!’
‘A stunning book… We're clearly in the hands of a master.'
‘A breath-taking, page-turning, wrenchingly heart-breaking tale.’
'A thrilling, atmospheric, action-filled story.'
THE PEACEMAKER:
‘A great book’
Spur award-winning and Pulitzer Prize-nominated author ROBERT VAUGHAN
‘For pure writing style, McBride’s
gritty prose nails the time and place of his story with bold authority. …this
relatively new author has thoroughly, and rightly so, claimed his place among
the top Old West storytellers.’ RALPH COTTON (also a Pulitzer-Prize
nominated novelist.)
THE ARIZONA KID: ‘Will delight fans of the well-told tale. The desert setting leaves
your mouth dust dry, the violence is vivid… If McBride's stories can't bring
the western back to life then someone better call an undertaker.’
To find out more about SHADOW MAN, where to buy
etc. see my Amazon author pages, Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Man-Andrew-McBride-ebook/dp/B0078XGONE/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
And Amazon.co.uk:
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