Blaze! is
a newish adult western series created by Stephen Mertz and published by Rough
Edges Press. It is “newish” because
there are now nine in the series, and the first, Blaze!, was published all the way back in January 2015. It features
the husband and wife bounty hunter team J. D.—don’t ever call him Jehoram
Delfonso—and Kate Blaze. The ninth and most recent entry in the series is Blaze!: A Son of the Gun written by
Stephen Mertz.
The Ludlow brothers are wanted men with a Pinkerton reward
attached. J. D. and Kate track the three outlaws to a deserted Arizona ranch the
men are using as a hideout. The capture turns quickly to violence and the
bounty claim becomes dead, rather than alive. It happens fast, but not easily. J.
D. is rescued from an ambush by a young man named Joe Bridge who is running,
with a young woman, from his former employer and his girl’s stepfather; a trio
of gunnies in their wake. J. D. and Kate help the couple escape with no
expectation of anything other than collecting their bounty in nearby Whiskey
Bend and riding on. But they get caught up in a shootout in the dusty town and
things only worsen from there.
Blaze!: A Son of the Gun is pure pulp joy. It is something like a 1960’s television western mixed with an Ace Double. Its plot is simple, linear and well executed. There is action on nearly every page with absolutely no doubt about who the good guys are and the bad. There is a low level, one or two scenes, of less than PG-13 married sex, which is where the “adult” part plays in, and, if I were to make a wager, I would bet Kate is tougher than J. D.
Ben, this looks good. I have not read many westerns about bounty hunters, as opposed to watching movies, but I suspect they usually play good guys.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the same situation. I haven't read many bounty hunter westerns, and further I'm not very familiar with the "adult western" sub-genre, but I enjoyed this one.
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