Martin Marais (writing as Martyn) is, like me, a Brit writing westerns. He tells me a favourite of his own books is DEADLY REPRISAL 'because things happened in it that I was not expecting!'
DEADLY REPRISAL is Book 3 of Martin's 'Bounty Hunter' series centred on the town of Wellhead.
Mary Elizabeth Doyle, driven to prostitution, falls foul of outlaw Billy Parker when she sets a group of Irish bounty hunters, led by the charming and charismatic Tom Callaghan, on his trail. This erupts into a bloody showdown where Mary shows she is no stranger to the gun herself.
The Irish in the Old West merit a blog all to themselves.
In the Old West initially women were a rarity and
prostitutes were welcomed by women-hungry settlers, miners and cattlemen.
Some – ‘crib girls’ - operated out of narrow shacks.
Others worked as saloon girls in saloons and dance
halls known as ‘hurdy-gurdy houses.’
The most favoured worked in opulent ‘parlor houses’ such
as The Old Homestead in the red-light district of Cripple Creek, Colorado.
Western ‘soiled doves’ acquired nick-names like Cowboy
Annie, Poker Nell, Diamond Tooth Lil, The Roaring Gimlet and Lady Jane Grey. Such
women as Jenny Rogers, Lillian Powers and Pearl de Vere went on to be madams
running their own bordellos.
‘Sporting girls’ generally worked on commissions,
splitting their fees evenly with the house but keeping tips.
Prostitutes sometimes doubled as laundresses and
cooks. Some fell victim to the hazards of their trade: venereal disease, a
crude abortion, too much alcohol, an overdose of laudanum or a violent assault
by a client.
As settlements grew and more ‘respectable’ women
arrived social attitudes changed and prostitutes were often ostracised, though
some went on to make respectable marriages.
The ‘world’s oldest profession’ has often featured in
western movies and TV, generally viewed sympathetically. To pick just a few
examples:
Clint Eastwood’s aging gunfighter comes to the defence
of abused prostitutes in ‘UNFORGIVEN.’
Julie Christie plays a ‘high-class’ madam in ‘McCABE
AND MRS MILLER’
and hard times drives Faye Dunaway to prostitution in ‘LITTLE
BIG MAN.’
Reviews of DEADLY REPRISAL:
‘A Fantastic Read… superb… It certainly has everything
you want in a Western, with plenty of gun fights, and great characters that you
can’t help but like.’
‘A must read series and a must read book.’
‘A rip-roaring western full of action and adventure.’
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MRWOWIC and https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deadly-Reprisal-Martyn-C-Marais-ebook/dp/B01MRWOWIC/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1531566006&sr=1-1
