REVIEWED BY DAN STUMPF: JIM O’MARA – Wall of Guns. Dutton, hardcover, 1950. Pocket #816, paperback, June 1951. Signet, paperback, 2002.    I almost started this review by saying that Jim O’Mara’s Wall of Guns is Western writing at its finest. On second think, that honorific is better suited to books like The Big Sky, Saint [...]

MIKE FREDMAN – You Can Always Blame the Rain. St. Martins, US, hardcover, 1980. First published in the U.K. by Paul Elek, hardcover, 1978.    If Harry Stoner [the PI hero of The Lime Pit, reviewed here not too long ago] can be considered a member of the knighthood for his willingness to rescue damsels in [...]

REVIEWED BY JON L. BREEN: ARIEL S. WINTER – The Twenty-Year Death. Hard Case Crime, hardcover, August 2012; trade paperback, August 2013.     Ariel S. Winter’s The Twenty-Year Death sets a challenge both ambitious and unique: three crime novels, each in the style of a different writer, that could individually stand alone but as a [...]

REVIEWED BY WALTER ALBERT:          KING OF THE RODEO. Universal, 1929. Hoot Gibson, Kathryn Crawford, Slim Summerfield, Monte Montague. Director: Henry MacRae. Shown at Cinefest 19, Syracuse NY, March 1999.    One of the high points of the weekend. Hoot is thrown out by his rancher father because he wants to ride in a rodeo in Chicago [...]

REVIEWED BY MICHAEL SHONK: SHANNON. Syndicated, 1961-62. Columbia Pictures–Screen Gems Productions. Cast: George Nader as Joe Shannon, Regis Toomey as Bill Cochran. Music by Arthur Morton. Created by John Hawkins. Executive Producer: Robert Sparks. Producer: Jerry Briskin. Directed by Fred Jackman.    Joe Shannon worked as an insurance investigator for Transport Bonding & Surety Company. TB&S [...]