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storyman's review
2.0
Loving just about every story Beat to a Pulp publish on their site, I looked forward to this. I don’t know why, I’m not mad for Westerns, unless they feature Clint smoking a cheroot and casually pushing his poncho to the side ready to slug lead into a squinty-eyed nemesis.
I couldn’t help picture a young Eastwood as this book’s hero, Cash Laramie, but unfortunately the book didn’t live up to expectations.
It starts with a young Laramie saving an older woman from a bunch of male chauvinists, killing one and helping send the rest to prison. She then beds him, despite being a few years older than his fourteen years, before sending him on his way to see the world.
Years later they meet up again as Cash, now a US Marshal, is sent to protect her as she runs for mayor of a town in lieu of her murdered husband. Laramie meets up with her again as a couple of criminals are about to rape her, and the rest of the story is about him, with the help of his colleague, Miles, protecting her and her son from further attempts on their lives by the town’s corrupt mayor.
There’s violence here to make your bones shake, with pieces of skull flying about, and eyes shot out, along with a rape scene that surprises. So you’d think the book would have the same amount of grit as the shorts featured in Beat to a Pulp. Instead, it feels more like a Saturday afternoon, 50s version of the old west, despite its violence. It’s dialogue is a little stilted, and quite a bit of the action doesn’t convince. The characters feel under-developed, including its protagonist, and the ending has a character turn round his enmity almost in the time it takes to make a cup of tea.
It’s not a horrible novel by any means, it just felt rushed, and told way too straight, with little to say about gender politics in the old west.
I couldn’t help picture a young Eastwood as this book’s hero, Cash Laramie, but unfortunately the book didn’t live up to expectations.
It starts with a young Laramie saving an older woman from a bunch of male chauvinists, killing one and helping send the rest to prison. She then beds him, despite being a few years older than his fourteen years, before sending him on his way to see the world.
Years later they meet up again as Cash, now a US Marshal, is sent to protect her as she runs for mayor of a town in lieu of her murdered husband. Laramie meets up with her again as a couple of criminals are about to rape her, and the rest of the story is about him, with the help of his colleague, Miles, protecting her and her son from further attempts on their lives by the town’s corrupt mayor.
There’s violence here to make your bones shake, with pieces of skull flying about, and eyes shot out, along with a rape scene that surprises. So you’d think the book would have the same amount of grit as the shorts featured in Beat to a Pulp. Instead, it feels more like a Saturday afternoon, 50s version of the old west, despite its violence. It’s dialogue is a little stilted, and quite a bit of the action doesn’t convince. The characters feel under-developed, including its protagonist, and the ending has a character turn round his enmity almost in the time it takes to make a cup of tea.
It’s not a horrible novel by any means, it just felt rushed, and told way too straight, with little to say about gender politics in the old west.
sethlynch's review
5.0
Unlike many other Laramie and Miles tales, this one doesn’t focus on the bringing back of an outlaw. Cash Laramie is sent out to protect a woman who’s running for mayor. Turns out it’s the same woman Cash had had to protect once before when she was campaigning for votes for women.
We get some of Cash’s back-story here – during that first meeting he kills his first bad-guy and looses his virginity to the widow woman he’s protecting. The hero of the tale is the widow woman herself. A strong independent woman who is perhaps forced along the road she has taken be circumstance. We also have a very interesting bad-guy (although that might not be exactly what they are). This is a Cash Laramie tale with Gideon Miles making a timely appearance.
We’ve seen racial prejudice against Gideon Miles in these tales before. This time it’s misogyny’s turn. Where Miles has been able to face down the racists the victim here, the widow woman, finds herself in serious peril. At first it’s pure ignorance driving the men on. Later it goes further, the prejudice is used as an excuse. We find out as the story goes along that there is something more sinister at the heart of the trouble. It’s sad to say that women are still treated in this backwards way in some parts of the world. Sad also that victims of racial prejudice don’t have Gideon Miles’ ability to defend themselves.
I’ve been trying not to give anything away but this is a very exciting tale – with a bitter-sweet ending. David Cranmer has made some seriously good choices in loaning out his characters. Despite having placed them in different hands – and each author producing very different tales – they maintain a consistency of both atmosphere and character. These books could have been written by the same person while benefitting from the Third Mind William Burroughs used to talk about – the something else you get when two people work on a project, something which neither of them bring to it directly.
This book (as of March 2012) is selling for 77p on Amazon UK. In fact you could get the 2 volumes plus the three stand alones for less than £5. You could lose £5 on your way home and not feel too bad about. A bit miffed but it’s not the end of the world. Lose £5 on these tales and you get back than £5 worth of writing– you’re quids in, go buy!
We get some of Cash’s back-story here – during that first meeting he kills his first bad-guy and looses his virginity to the widow woman he’s protecting. The hero of the tale is the widow woman herself. A strong independent woman who is perhaps forced along the road she has taken be circumstance. We also have a very interesting bad-guy (although that might not be exactly what they are). This is a Cash Laramie tale with Gideon Miles making a timely appearance.
We’ve seen racial prejudice against Gideon Miles in these tales before. This time it’s misogyny’s turn. Where Miles has been able to face down the racists the victim here, the widow woman, finds herself in serious peril. At first it’s pure ignorance driving the men on. Later it goes further, the prejudice is used as an excuse. We find out as the story goes along that there is something more sinister at the heart of the trouble. It’s sad to say that women are still treated in this backwards way in some parts of the world. Sad also that victims of racial prejudice don’t have Gideon Miles’ ability to defend themselves.
I’ve been trying not to give anything away but this is a very exciting tale – with a bitter-sweet ending. David Cranmer has made some seriously good choices in loaning out his characters. Despite having placed them in different hands – and each author producing very different tales – they maintain a consistency of both atmosphere and character. These books could have been written by the same person while benefitting from the Third Mind William Burroughs used to talk about – the something else you get when two people work on a project, something which neither of them bring to it directly.
This book (as of March 2012) is selling for 77p on Amazon UK. In fact you could get the 2 volumes plus the three stand alones for less than £5. You could lose £5 on your way home and not feel too bad about. A bit miffed but it’s not the end of the world. Lose £5 on these tales and you get back than £5 worth of writing– you’re quids in, go buy!
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