Thursday 5 September 2013

Sharper's Quest

By Jay D. West
Hale, August 2013

Sharper Wade rides into Virginia City more by chance than intent. He’d heard about the Comstock Lode and the vast wealth in gold and silver that was being mined there, but Sharper’s needs are limited to having enough money to eat, feed his horse and buy ammunition.

He is in town no more than an hour when he witnesses a brutal attack on a defenceless girl and her grandfather by three cowboys and steps in to help, landing himself in jail accused of murder. But he had a witness who can exonerate him and Sharper needs to find the men responsible, or lose his life….

There are five previous Sharper Wade books but fans may well have given up reading a new story about him long ago as the last book, Hell Riders, came out in 2001. I haven’t read the whole series but did find those I have to be very entertaining, so I for one was pleased to see this book announced.

Events in Hell Riders do get a brief mention but you don’t have to have read that book (or any of the others) to enjoy this one.

Jay D. West writes at a fast pace, switches from character to character to show how changes to situations effect those people and their plans. The plot throws up a couple of neat twists and turns too. There’s plenty of action that is often described quite graphically.

On finishing this book I can only hope that Jay D. West doesn’t make us wait anywhere near as long before for Sharper Wade to hit the trail again. 

1 comment:

Nik Morton said...

That's a good recommendation, Steve, thanks. I wonder why there was such a long gap between books.