Saturday 2 August 2008

The Derby Man #2

SHOWDOWN AT SNAKEGRASS JUNCTION
by Gary McCarthy
Dell, July 1979

The hat fit him, the tin star didn’t. But when his pal, Sheriff Cather, was taken out of action, Darby Buckingham started playing lawman to the town of Running Springs, Wyoming. And the town sure needed him now, since the gun-slick honchos of neighboring Snakegrass Junction seem determined to blast Running Springs out of existence.

This is the second book about Darby Buckingham, the overweight Easterner, pulp western writer, out West searching for real heroes to write about.

The book takes up right from where the first ended with Darby worried about how he’ll handle trouble if it arrives in Running Springs.

McCarthy again creates believable characters in an exciting read. His descriptions of scenes, at times, making you feel as if the action was happening before you. McCarthy also includes many humorous incidents that balance well with the more violent events.

Darby Buckingham is fast becoming one of my favourite western heroes.

Get a copy of the book here, or an audio version here.

2 comments:

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

I'm definitely going to get some of these. The character interests me - I'll check Amazon and Ebay.

Steve M said...

There are 11 books in the series, here's the titles:

The Derby Man
Showdown at Snakegrass Junction
Mustang Fever
The Pony Express War
Silver Shot
Explosion at Donner Pass
North Chase
Rebel of Bodie
The Rail Warriors
Whiskey Creek
The Comstock Camels

Book 3 and 4 may have come out the other way round. The final two books came out almost 10 years after the fisrt 9 and - as far as I know - are only available as hardbacks.