RICHARD
PROSCH is an author who not only writes westerns but thrillers (including his Dan
Spalding series.) He’s written novels and short fiction, winning a Spur Award
in the latter category. He tells me his
favourite of his westerns is his novel GUNS
OF LEGION (where he writes as A. W. HART.) This is the Ninth book in the
AVENGING ANGELS series.
GUNS OF LEGION is no ordinary western. The protagonists are a
pair of bounty hunters – very common in western fiction, if hard to find in the
history of the Old West. But this pair are twins: Reno Bass and his sister, Sara. When they arrive in Lone Jack, Wyoming Territory, they’re not pursuing
any common-or-garden outlaw, but a mysterious and monstrous creature
terrorising the area.
Soon other
surreal elements intrude: the appearance nearby of a decidedly strange and
sinister travelling show and menagerie run by Mendelssohn
Jobe.
The twins
find themselves embattled in the West’s weirdest range war – between a besieged
rancher and a carnival of grotesque giants, dwarfs and other horror-show freaks.
And behind everything is the threat that The Guns of Legion are coming to unleash
devastation on the world.
In the real
Old West circuses, menageries and troupes of travelling players brought
entertainment to remote communities. Premier among them were BARNUM & BAILEY.
PHINEAS TAYLOR BARNUM (1810 – 1891) established "P. T.
Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome" in
1870, a traveling circus, menagerie, and museum of "freaks." JAMES
ANTHONY BAILEY (1847
– 1906,) born JAMES ANTHONY
MCGINNIS, was an American circus ringmaster and impresario. He met with Barnum
and together they established BARNUM & BAILEY’S CIRCUS (for which Bailey was
instrumental in obtaining Jumbo the Elephant) in 1880. Their combined show
opened the following spring at Madison Square Gardens. Their
entourage adopted many names over the years, including THE GREATEST SHOW ON
EARTH.
Travelling side-shows, medicine shows and troupes of nomadic actors have
featured in many westerns, from ‘Wagonmaster’
to ‘Heller in Pink Tights.’
One of my favourite scenes in any western is the wonderful vignette in ‘My Darling Clementine’ (1946) where the actor
played by ALAN MOWBRAY is forced to recite Hamlet’s ‘To Be or not to Be’ soliloquy
to the jeering and unappreciative Clanton Gang.
Here’s BEVERLY GARLAND as a dancer in a sideshow in ‘The Saga of Hemp Brown’ (1958.)
The weird
elements of GUNS OF LEGION definitely
put me in mind of the TV Western series ‘The
Wild Wild West.’ I thought of the episode ‘The Night of the Sudden Death.’
And I
thought of all the western/horror mash ups. But that’s the subject for another
blog…
REVIEWS
of GUNS OF LEGION:
‘Intriguing
characters… a heck of a book.’
‘Another
great story of the twins that you can't put down.’
‘This
book has plenty twist and turns to keep it very interesting.’
‘Great
western.’
And here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Avenging-Angels-Legion-W-Hart-ebook/dp/B086Z32VGB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1APN5RIYHFAQK&dchild=1&keywords=the+guns+of+legion+a+w+hart&qid=1594546566&sprefix=guns+of+legion%2Caps%2C184&sr=8-1
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