Friday 3 October 2008

Cutter #3

SAVAGE BLOOD
as by Duff McCoy
Pinnacle, February 1991

Jeb Cutter narrowly escapes with his life when attacked by some bloodthirsty Apache warriors. Hiding in a cave Cutter finds a stash of Winchesters and having lost his takes one. This rifle will be his downfall when Lieutenant Dwight Ashby points out this is one of a batch of stolen guns and accuses Cutter of being a gunrunner. Now Cutter wants revenge, he's gonna make the Lieutenant pay, and the gunrunners and the Apaches. One man against many – they're the kind of odds that Cutter likes.

The plot to this book is not all that complicated, there isn't room as most of the story is one very violent confrontation after another.

All the action is described in all its brutality, particularly that of the Apache attacks. Charley Perlberg (writing as Duff McCoy) seems intent on shocking the reader with drawn out death scenes, graphically portraying the killing of men, women and children alike.

With Cutter up against so many you have to wonder how he can take them all on and live. Perlberg uses the plot of Cutter playing his enemies off against each other to great effect to achieve this.

For those who enjoy non-stop violent action then you'll probably get a kick out of this, if you like a little more depth to your characters then you may find this book lacking, as I found it impossible to like – or care about the fate of – any of them.

1 comment:

Chris said...

Jeb Cutter rivals any L'Amour name I've yet seen. What an awesome name!