Wednesday, 11 October 2017

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: JASON KILKENNY’S GUN by KIT PRATE

Kit Prate (a Sundown Press author like me) tells me her favourite of her westerns is JASON KILKENNY'S GUN, now available on Sundown Press. Kit describes it as ‘a coming of age story; a young boy falls under the spell of a notorious bounty hunter without realizing the consequences for his family.’

In JASON KILKENNY'S GUN the bounty hunter is Rance Savage, still seeking revenge on the man who partially crippled him 20 years earlier; his young admirer is 15 year old Josh Kincaid. But then Savage finds the man he’s been searching for so long…

Historical evidence for Old West bounty hunters is scant, but they’re certainly popular in western fiction, being portrayed by everyone from Randolph Scott (‘Ride Lonesome’)


to James Stewart (‘The Naked Spur’)


to Steve McQueen in the TV series ‘Wanted Dead or Alive.’



The theme of a youngster hero-worshipping a bounty hunter made me think of Henry Fonda (the bounty hunter) and Anthony Perkins in ‘The Tin Star’ (1957.)



Anthony Perkins & Henry Fonda in 'The Tin Star'

Tom Horn 


and Charlie Siringo


are two historical westerners who could almost be described as bounty hunters.
There were of course scalp-hunters in the Old West, men who went after bounty offered for Native American hair. Men like John Johnson, who carried out the infamous 1837 massacre of Apaches at Santa Rita, New Mexico, and James Kirker, an Irishman who operated in Mexico and went after Apache scalps c. 1840.


James Kirker

One reviewer on Kit Prate generally: ‘…The best in the business -- best plots, best characters, best action, and the unexpected details and gestures that vault the prose right off the page.’

Other reviewers on 
JASON KILKENNY'S GUN:
‘Your jaw will be hanging at the storytelling ability.’

‘Awesome… very enjoyable read.’

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