DEATH WEARS A STAR by ANDREW McBRIDE

Up until April 2017 I had 2 acclaimed western novels, THE PEACEMAKER – published by Sundown Press as a paperback and e.book – and SHADOW MAN published by Crowood Press as an e.book – available to buy.

Reviews of 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.)

SHADOW MAN: ‘A little masterpiece waiting for you to turn the page.’

Well, now there’s 4 more!  My 4 other western novels, originally published as hardbacks and paperbacks, have now been re-issued as e.books by Crowood Press. They are CANYON OF THE DEAD, DEATH WEARS A STAR, DEATH SONG and THE ARIZONA KID. They too have received acclaim. I’ll be blogging about them separately over the coming weeks.

Today I discuss DEATH WEARS A STAR, which was the second of my westerns to be published.

We authors often admire our early work for its freshness and energy even if we’re still working out how to do the job properly – a bit like having affection for your young, if sometimes foolish, self.

I have the same affection for DEATH WEARS A STAR, although – and this might be a more honest confession than you often hear from authors – I wouldn’t rate it as a favourite. Reading it now, I think its weakness is there’s too much plot – I was too ambitious in tackling a quite complicated set-up in a short book. I compounded that by making a proof-reading error – a paragraph or so in Chapter 8, giving an important piece of information you really need to understand the story was left out. Overall, it’s probably too busy, there’s too much going on, and the pace is too breathless. Having said that I’m still proud of DEATH WEARS A STAR and think it’s a highly enjoyable read.

DEATH WEARS A STAR BLURB:

The Tengen brothers planned to make themselves all the law there was in Coffin Creek and the surrounding Cochise Country. Then the whole south east corner of Arizona would be theirs to plunder at will. Behind the tin stars they wore, the brothers were killers, pure and simple... 
But they'd reckoned without Calvin Taylor, former Indian scout turned Wells Fargo agent. Taylor would bring real law and order to the town, even if he had to do it at the point of a gun. The result was an explosion of violence and killing. Blood ran on the streets of Coffin Creek and a twisted trail of vengeance led high into the mountains of Apache country.

All 8 of my westerns, including the 4 re-issues, 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.

Anyone familiar with western history will have no difficulty in recognising DEATH WEARS A STAR as a fictionalisation of the story of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the Clanton Gang in the area of Tombstone, Arizona in the early 1880s – events including probably the most famous shoot-out in western history - the ‘Gunfight at the OK corral.’

Tombstone, Arizona c. 1880

WYATT BERRY STAPP EARP (1848-1929) is also probably the most famous lawman of the whole era, and a controversial figure even to this day.

I consulted various sources about Earp and found myself most drawn to the portrait of him in ‘The Earp Brothers of Tombstone’ by Frank Waters. I am well aware that not everybody is going to agree with my interpretation!

Killed at the OK Corral: from left - Tom McLowry (spellings vary), Frank McLowry, Billy Clanton.

Earp was a figure who blurred between reality and myth even in his own lifetime, even meeting the great film director John Ford (and, it’s said, his young actor friend John Wayne) in 1928. Earp told his version of events at the OK Corral to Ford who used it in his 1946 film MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. The accuracy of his account is a matter of dispute; regardless, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE is usually held (and certainly held by me) to be one of the greatest of all western movies.

Earp has been depicted in numerous movies over the years, sympathetically and unsympathetically, from GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL (Burt Lancaster) to HOUR OF THE GUN (James Garner) to DOC (Harris Yulin) WYATT EARP (Kevin Costner) and TOMBSTONE (Kurt Russell.)

Hugh O’Brian also played him in a long-running TV series.

And let’s not forget his startling appearance (played by Ron Soble) in STAR TREK’s ‘Spectre of the Gun.’

Ron Soble (as Wyatt Earp) centre.

Fictionalisations have also been done, perhaps most notably in WARLOCK, with Henry Fonda playing the Earp role, as he did in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE.

Just as controversial as Earp was his shady sidekick DOC HOLLIDAY. John Henry Holliday (1851- 1887) was a dentist from Georgia who, developing tuberculosis, came west for the good of his health; but he soon became a denizen of saloons and a professional gambler.

On screen Holliday has often been an even livelier presence than Earp, strongly portrayed by Jason Robards in HOUR OF THE GUN

James Garner (Wyatt Earp) Jason Robards (Doc Holliday) HOUR OF THE GUN (1967)

Stacy Keach in DOC, Val Kilmer in TOMBSTONE, Anthony Quinn in WARLOCK and, a particular favourite of mine, Kirk Douglas in GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL.

Kirk Douglas (Doc Holliday) Burt Lancaster (Wyatt Earp)   GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL (1957)

DEATH WEARS A STAR

EXTRACT

The coach was in a narrow, high-walled gully, deep in shadow, straining up a grade. Hazy shapes moved on the slope above: horsemen. Calvin Taylor glimpsed metal: rifles and pistols in the riders’ hands. One of the horsemen called, “Hold up and nobody’ll get hurt!”

The coach juddered to a halt. As the grey light slowly turned pink, Taylor saw there were six horsemen: one man riding downslope towards the coach, four more behind him, the most distant up on the ridge, silhouetted there. Some of them wore long dusters covering their clothing. All of them had gunnysacks over their heads, with eye-holes cut in the sacks. Taylor felt fear, an aching in his stomach. His common sense told him they were just men with their heads covered in cloth, yet their masks made them somehow inhuman, terrible.

From the floor Schneider whispered, “Road agents?”

Taylor said, “Yes.”

To find out more, where to buy etc. see my Amazon author pages, Amazon.com:

 https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-McBride/e/B01N9O1C05/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

And Amazon.co.uk:

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-McBride/e/B01N9O1C05/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

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.’

‘If McBride's stories can't bring the western back to life, then someone better call an undertaker.’

Of DEATH WEARS A STAR: ‘I have derived immense pleasure from Andrew McBride’s superb sequence of ‘death’ westerns, Canyon of the Dead, Death Wears a Star… and Death Song.’

‘Andrew McBride never disappoints. He not only moves the story along like a runaway stage, but he writes wonderful characters and authentic settings.’

As I say, I’ll be blogging about each re-issue separately over the coming weeks. Watch this space!

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: JUDGE ON THE RUN by CLAY MORE

Keith Souter, writing as Clay More, is, like me, a Brit who writes westerns. He’s not afraid to mix genres, as in WANTED DEAD OR REVIVED, which mixes the western with steampunk! (And maybe a little bit of the vampire novel.) He tells me he has 2 joint favourites of his own work, one of which is JUDGE ON THE RUN.

Wesley Talbot is the youngest judge in the territory and a highly-respected one. So why does he adopt the identity of wanted desperado Diamond Jim Chance and go on the run? What dangers lurk in a hidden canyon in the Pintos Mountains? And who is the real mastermind behind a gang of vicious killers?

Meanwhile the ruthless bounty hunter known as The Deacon is on the judge’s trail, after the judge hung his brother. The climax is a gunpowder-laced showdown in the church of a small Mexican village.
 

Judges have rarely featured as action heroes in westerns, although Joel McCrea did in STRANGER ON HORSEBACK (1955.)

As the story involves bounty hunters and a Mexican village I had to image Steve McQueen in both ‘WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE’

and ‘THE MAGNIFICENT 7.’

The Deacon character reminded me of Lee Van Cleef in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. 

Meanwhile here’s 2 of the Old West’s most notorious judges:

JUDGE ROY BEAN, (c. 1825 – 1903) the self-styled ‘Law west of the Pecos,’ who, it appears, only hung 1 man

and

JUDGE ISAAC PARKER, (1838- 1896) the ‘hanging judge’ of the Fort Smith gallows, who hung 79.

A 5 star review of JUDGE ON THE RUN says you’ll love it ‘If you like westerns, and suspense.’
Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/Judge-Run-Clay-More-ebook/dp/B00BN0ZCDG/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481442494&sr=1-1&keywords=judge+on+the+run+clay+more

CANYON OF THE DEAD by ANDREW McBRIDE

Up until April 2017 I had 2 acclaimed western novels, THE PEACEMAKER – published by Sundown Press as a paperback and e.book – and SHADOW MAN published by Crowood Press as an e.book – available to buy.

Reviews of 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.)

SHADOW MAN: ‘A little masterpiece waiting for you to turn the page.’

Well, now there’s 4 more!  My 4 other western novels, originally published as hardbacks and paperbacks, have now been re-issued as e.books by Crowood Press. They are CANYON OF THE DEAD, DEATH WEARS A STAR, DEATH SONG and THE ARIZONA KID. They too have received acclaim. I’ll be blogging about them separately over the coming weeks.

I thought I’d start with CANYON OF THE DEAD, which was the first of my westerns to be published.

Authors are very often fond of their first published works. Not only does it mark a breakthrough for us into the public arena, we admire our early work for its freshness and energy even if we’re still working out how to do the job properly – a bit like having affection for your young, if sometimes foolish, self.

I have the same affection for CANYON OF THE DEAD, although – and this might be a more honest confession than you often hear from authors – I wouldn’t rate it as a favourite. I got better as a writer! Reading it now, I think it’s probably too busy, there’s too much going on, and the pace is too breathless. As I wrote more, I learned to control my energy and settle down. There’s also one episode in the story that I wouldn’t include now. But what’s done is done, and CANYON OF THE DEAD remains, in my opinion, a good book and not just a good debut.  

CANYON OF THE DEAD BLURB:

Calvin Taylor had learned the tricks of his trade scouting against the Apaches. Now the Indian Wars were almost over, he was using those same deadly skills to hunt down lawbreakers of all races.

Taylor believed there was an organisation behind the stock-thieving sweeping Arizona. In the grim Canyon of the Dead he located the robbers’ roost and the outlaw leader. But trapped as he was in a web of treachery, violence and intrigue, pursued by a crazed Apache renegade, his next problem was how to get out of the canyon alive and avoid the shadow of the hangman’s noose.

All 6 of my westerns, including the 4 re-issues, 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.

I’d almost forgotten this, but an original role model for Calvin Taylor – the Apache scout turned lawman (in one form or another) - was TOM HORN, who remains a controversial figure in western history even to this day.

I was wrestling with the dilemma of genre fiction writers – it’s easy to make villains interesting, but how do you manage it with heroes? Presenting them as flawless and massively heroic you run the risk of making them not only ‘too good to be true’ but also boring. I wanted a hero who was still heroic but flawed and vulnerable. Calvin Taylor’s sympathies with Native Americans makes him an outsider in his own society; he’s regarded as someone whose wilderness and fighting skills make useful in taming a wild frontier, but too different and dangerous to be fully accepted. As such he has similarities with one of the classic western outsiders – the character JOHN WAYNE portrayed so powerfully in THE SEARCHERS. 

The story also brings Taylor into contact with ranchers who helped open up Arizona Territory – men such as PETE KITCHEN

 and 'Texas' JOHN SLAUGHTER.

So that’s my introduction to CANYON OF THE DEAD. I hope you enjoy it.

EXTRACT

Calvin Taylor came from his thoughts. He saw the ears of the horses pointing to the east and he looked that way. He made out a dim shape standing in a clump of junipers, behind a screen of foliage; a green shadow that might be a man with a rifle in his hands.

The thing to do, Taylor decided, was not to show he’d seen the man but to keep walking over to his horse, then take action.

Behind him he heard the click of a weapon coming on full cock.

To find out more, where to buy etc. see my Amazon author pages, Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-McBride/e/B01N9O1C05/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

And Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-McBride/e/B01N9O1C05/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

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.’

‘If McBride's stories can't bring the western back to life, then someone better call an undertaker.’

Of CANYON OF THE DEAD, DEATH WEARS A STAR: ‘I have derived immense pleasure from Andrew McBride’s superb sequence of ‘death’ westerns, Canyon of the Dead, Death Wears a Star… and Death Song.’

As I say, I’ll be blogging about each re-issue separately over the coming weeks. Watch this space!