TOP 5 WESTERNS OF 2024
2024 one of the best years of the western genre. Authors showed range from authentic historicals to pulpy shoot em' ups, with many finding their voice by balancing the two. Here are the five favorite I read last year.
THE IRON STAR by Loren D. Estleman- Estleman returns to one of his earlier works, Mr.
St. John and opens it up like a bebop musician with the use of different points of view. Not only does it look at how pepective plays a part in history and what we take from it, he also celebrates the range of styles in western fiction.
NO HALLOWED GROUND by Steve Hockensmith- A month after he established his characters in the first book in his Hired Gun series, he delivered this rip roaring read with them a month later. He fleshed out his three heroes even more and delivers great action and dialogue as they chase down an outlaw gang carrying one hell of a stolen item. Hockensmith applies his craft to the paperback western, showing it can be highly entertaining art.
ALONG THE RESTLESS TRAIL,, THE RESTKESS TRAIL BACK HOME, & BACK ON THE RESTLESS TRAIL by Robert Peecher- Peecher created an epic adventure with paperback bravado, concerning a group of cowboys going down to revolutionary Mexico to rob a guns for gold exchange. Full of hardy men, loving women, and a lot of flying lead. Somehow Peecher found time to release a few more books after these this trilogy/
BLOODY NEWTON by JOhnny D. Boggs - Boggs uses a historical gunfight and the lives of three fictional characters of a Texas drover, reporter, and restaurateur to trace the rise of a cattle that becomes a character of itself. Once again, Mr. Boggs shows a knack for making the epic intimate.
. THE BIG DRY- by Patrick Dearen- Dearen's stand alone sequel to his much loved The Big Drift has white coboy Will Brite trying to clear his black cowhand buddy, Zeke Boles, from a murder charge as he takes cover in a cattle drive across Texas through one of its legendary droughts. The most authentic western I read this year..
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