AXLE BUST CREEK - John Shirley


 Axle Bust Creek is a new mining town in Nevada. Towns such as this don't usually have law enforcement until the lawlessness gets out of hand. 

Cleve Trewe is a former Union officer who feels it's his family duty to help his uncle (who was almost killed defending his gold mine from claim jumpers). Although Cleve's got the legitimate paperwork to prove his rightful ownership of the mine, he finds that the crooks have done a good jump of casting doubts on their documents and claim.

Most people in town know that there is need for law, and Cleve puts his name forward and is selected to be the town sheriff. He takes the job seriously (not just as a position to take back the mine) and defends a prisoner from hanging by a lynch mob (having some PTSD from when he saw a war deserter hung).

Complications arise in his pursuit of the rightful mine ownership when Cleve starts to fall for the sister of the leader behind the claim jumping. Cleve is confident that she's innocent in the affair and has no knowledge of what her brother is doing.

Like many readers, I'm most familiar with author john Shirley through his sci-fi and horror work and I really did expect to find some cross-over, but Shirley shows his versatility here with a straight-up Western which draws on a few familiar tropes (ie: Civil War vet; chosen to be the law in a lawless town; falling for the sister of the 'villain'; standing up to a mob to protect a prisoner; etc).

The book is the first in a series, named for our hero, Cleve Trewe so it should go without saying that the reader's 'liking' of Trewe is important. Fortunately Shirley portrays Trewe as a lawful, good man without being a pushover. If I have one complaint, however, it's that our hero doesn't seem to have to work too hard at any time in the book - any challenge or obstacle is met and dealt with pretty easily.

I recognize that the market for Western fiction isn't particularly large, but for those of us who do enjoy a Western now and then, it's really nice to have a publisher putting out some new works

Looking for a good book? Axle Bust Creek by John Shirley is the first book in a new Western series that promises to follow a morally upright, new-on-the-job sheriff in a mining town out West.

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

4 stars

* * * * * *

Axle Bust Creek

author: John Shirley

series: Cleve Trewe #1

publisher: Pinnacle Books

ISBN: 9780786049257

paperback, 352 pages

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