Friday 25 July 2008

Chance #8

MISSOURI MASSACRE 
as by Clay Tanner
Avon, November 1987

Chance Sharpe is still in the Dakota wilds, trying to reach the Missouri and then link up with his riverboat. But things don’t go to plan and Chance soon finds himself two new trailmates, survivors of a tribal massacre. These two are a white woman and her son. They’ve been captives of Shadow Killer, a fierce Sioux warchief - and he wants them back. As the manhunt closes in on Chance, the gambler realizes the odds just maybe against him this time...

George W. Proctor (writing as Clay Tanner) presents the reader with a book that starts slowly and gently builds to it’s violent and crushing - for Chance - ending.

The first part deals with the building relationship between Chance and the white woman who won’t look at him, never mind speak to him.

When Chance finds out just who she is he refuses to accept that Shadow Killer will come after them. Slowly he comes to realise cannot ignore the facts any longer and has to take on about 30 warriors alone.

The fight with the Sioux covers most of the second half of the book and is quiet gruesome at times. The author really sets out to test his hero with seemingly impossible odds and how he takes them on proves to be exciting reading.

This series is one I’d recommend to anyone who likes their westerns tough and brutal.

Get a copy here.

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