Showdown in Gun Town

By: Lauran Paine

Narrated by: Alex Boyles

Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Walt Hodge had delivered 80 horses to Whipple Barracks for the Army, and he wasn’t in a big hurry to get home. He traveled down the Saginaw Mountains and into the upland cow country of Sunflower, Arizona, seeking only a cold glass of beer, food, and a bed for himself, along with feed for his horse. He should have listened and turned around when he asked the hostler what was going on and was told: “Trouble, mister. Bad trouble.”

After he had a drink, surrounded by silent cowmen, he discovered why the town of Sunflower was so unusually quiet and empty. He had walked into the middle of an emerging range war over water rights in the middle of a blistering summer.

Being mistaken as one of Jim Bricker’s B-Back-to-Back men annoyed Walt, but being knocked out by a Bricker rider, who said Walt was a Mike Weedon man, was just more than he could take. Then he met Bricker’s daughter.

It doesn’t take long for Hodge to find himself in the middle of things once he is blamed for the killing of a Bricker man. By the time the war is over, three men are dead, the town of Sunflower finds its self-respect, and a jailhouse is full of demoralized cowmen.

©2020 Lauran Paine Jr. (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

great book

I enjoyed this book. glad I let this go. some I don't like but I did this one

Too short

Loved the characters.
Especially loved the reader, Alex Boyles.
I wanted the story to go on.
Ended too abruptly for me.

It was a good story

It was a good story with a few surprises. Yet, it’s your typical cowboy story.

Terrible Narration

The story had less quality than a rerun of Bonanza or Gun Smoke. The narrator doesn’t have any idea how to make a grizzled old deputy sound like he is growling dialog. Terrible.

Solid, sure, but superficial.

Paine published over a thousand books in his lifetime-- which is as workman-like as a writer can get. And it shows.
He also wrote Open Range. I think the movie's performances and script likely 'enhanced' the book.
Marred by some 'B' Western elements.

Range war lite!

Walt Hodge moseyed into Sunflower, Arizona for a beer, some food, and a bed after delivering eighty horses to the US Army at Whipple Barracks. Unfortunately for Walt, he rode into the middle of a range war. Stepping into the saloon for his beer, he found himself surrounded by an unfriendly crew of Weedon cowboys on one side of the war. Across the street in another saloon were the Bricker cowboys from the other side. Mistaken identity led to drawn guns and a quick exit out the back door. So begins Walt’s outrageous tale of being hunted by both camps for mistaken offenses against both. Coming to a gentlemen's agreement with the sheriff, with a sense of duty, and a will to stop a range war, Walt gambled to overcome the odds against him. I semi-enjoyed listening to this tale but I have some doubts as to the realism of the situation as described.

Pathetic

I had to toss in the towel and actually quit listening a chapter and one half before the ending - it just got too predictable, sappy, sophomoric and just plain unbelievable. The premise was about the same as can be expected of most westerns (Why can't we actually have some decent, realistic westerns written any more? Like those of Leonard, Parker and McMutry?!)
I took a writing course once and I remember the instructor stressing to us not to make the hero and heroine do stupid, untealistic things like fall instantly in love - like happened in this book.
The narrator appears to have attended the Captain Kirk School.of Public Speaking. His cadence and lack of inflection will drive you mad!
Finally, it seems the author broke out his Roget's Book of Synonyms, Adverbs and Adjectives! Wow! He really padded his writing to get to a predetermined length, it seems.
if you want mindless, unrealistic story-telling, go ahead and down-lod this book. Otherwise, don't waste your time.