BAD RIVER - Ralph Cotton


 Ranger Sam Burrack is on his way south in search of a notorious gang of bandits. He's gotten a tip from Escalante - a prisoner in the Yuma Penitentiary - that the Cowboy Gang are holing up along Bad River. The mayor of the nearby village is as corrupt as the gang and if the rumors are true, they've even got a former Russian assassin among their gang, making their bank and train robberies that much more dangerous.

Burrack knows he won't be able to just walk in and make arrests, he's going to have to be patient and then maybe he'll be able to pick them up one at a time.

So this book wasn't quite what I was expecting and had me thinking about the "western" genre. Typically, when I choose to read a western - a classic style western - I'm looking for character, action, setting, and story, pretty much in that order. And when that order is changed up my first reaction is that I didn't like the story. Such is the case here.

This is a slow-moving, thoughtful (reflective) story.  Given the nature of the characters ... a ranger and some criminals, including an assassin ... one would expect a lot of shoot-'em up action, but that's not the case here.  This is probably much more realistic (and certainly smarter) to not have our hero rush in against overwhelming odds, but 'real' isn't always exciting to read.

I found this to be quite slow. It seemed like a lot of set-up for a nice payoff, but it was too little, too late.

This was my first book by author Ralph Cotton and there were enough hints that I might like other books by the same author, so I hope to give Cotton another chance, but this particular book just didn't hit the mark.

Looking for a good book? Bad River by Ralph Cotton is a western that is likely much more realistic in it's approach to having the law catch the criminals, but it's a lot of planning and very slow moving. If you want a thoughtful western, give this a try. If you want an action western, move along.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

2-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

Bad River

author: Ralph Cotton

publisher: Berkley Books

ISBN: 0593437721

paperback, 304 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in...
Read more

THE WALLED CITY - Ryan Graudin

Image
  Jin and her sister, Mei Yee, were taken and sold and then sent to the lawless Walled City to serve as prostitutes or slaves to anyone willing to pay. Jin managed to escape her captivity, but not the Walled City and she now lurks about, disguised as a boy and is trying to track down the brothel where her sister is still captive. Jin will work odd delivery jobs to earn a small bit of money and hopefully have a legitimate means of coming in contact with her sister's captors.  This is how she meets up with Dai, a mysterious boy who has somehow managed to avoid running with any of the gangs in the city but he seems to have his own unusual connections, which Jon could desperately use if she has any hope of finding Mei Yee. But Dai has his own desperate needs.  The story is told from the different perspectives of each character and we do bounce around quite a bit as the chapters are generally short. This never bothered me, which is slightly unusual as often I find this techni...
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - ...
Read more