Review Roundup: Revenge is a Bitter Brew

Ranger’s Revenge
By James J. Griffin
Western Fictioneers Library, March 2013
$0.99 Kindle, ASIN B00BNQJ2G8
195 pages

When a gang of outlaws attacks Texas Ranger Jim Blawcyzk’s wife and son, a dyed-in-the-wool lawman sheds his badge to get revenge. Determined to deliver justice personally this time, he disobeys orders and sets out after the lowlifes, not knowing whether his family will live or die of their wounds. Will he cross the line and become exactly the sort of man he’s always hunted?

First published in 2008 and out of print for several years before Western Fictioneers re-released the book in digital formats, Jim Griffin’s Ranger’s Revenge represents something of a departure for the author. Griffin typically draws a bright line between good and evil, hero and outlaw. In this tale, Blawcyzk — one of the author's recurring characters — wears the mantle of an antihero, and he wears it well. The outlaws wanted him dead; his wife and son were collateral damage. That notion twists a knife deep in Blawcyzk’s soul. Part of him demands the personal satisfaction of avenging his innocent loved ones, yet he can’t quite turn loose of his bone-marrow-deep principles. The conflict tears him up inside and creates a honed edge of tension for most of the book.

While Blawcyzk hunts the outlaws, the Rangers hunt him. He must employ everything he’s learned about both sides of the law just to survive. When partners and old friends come to his aid, he’s burdened with the additional knowledge their careers and lives are in jeopardy, too. Nevertheless, he forges deeper into the bowels of a self-made hell, more conflicted than ever but unwilling to abandon his quest.

Ranger’s Revenge is gritty, action-packed, and full of Griffin’s signature historical detail. For Griffin fans, this is a must-read. For writers, it’s excellent study material. Readers who enjoy classic westerns will find all the tradition they could want between the covers.


Kathleen Rice Adams is a Texan, a voracious reader, a professional journalist, and a novelist in training. She received a review copy of Ranger’s Revenge from the publisher. Her opinions are her own and are neither endorsed nor necessarily supported by Western Fictioneers or individual members of the organization.

Ranger Jim’s Ramblings James J. Griffin

First, thanks to Cheryl for giving me an extra chance at the blog, and as always thanks to Livia for getting these missives posted.

Since this is out of my usual slot, I’m just going to jot down some random thoughts and information.

We’ll start off with a quiz. This is from the files of today’s Texas Rangers. A couple of years back, my Ranger buddy Jim Huggins had to investigate and solve what became known as the “This Little Piggy Murder”. So, can anyone come up with an idea as to what the case involved? Answer will be on my regular blog slot on March 14th. And if anyone comes up with a guess that is even close, they’ll win an autographed copy of one of my Jim Blawcyzk Texas Ranger novels.

Back to horses. I want to bring up horse gaits, and hopefully prevent at least one western author from making a mistake I see over and over again in Westerns. A cowboy NEVER, EVER “canters” his horse. I repeat, a cowboy NEVER, EVER “canters” his horse! A cowboy “lopes” his horse. The three gaits of a Western horse are walk, jog, and lope. Walk, trot, and canter are the gaits of English horses and riders. You can get away with saying a cowboy trots his horse, although you really shouldn’t, unless you say jogtrot, but canter is completely, totally, absolutely incorrect. In fact, if you go to a horse show, in the western classes you will always hear the judge instruct the riders to “walk their horses”, then “jog”, then “lope”.  And while a lot of people think the gaits are the same, there are differences. An English horse’s trot is generally faster than the Western horse’s jog, and an English horse’s canter is generally faster than the Western horse’s lope. Hence the reason English riders have to post to the trot, to keep from being bounced all over the place. So, no more cowboys cantering their horses. Next time I see that the author gets forty lashes with a rubber horseshoe.

While we’re on the subject of horses, I did one of my Western talks, reenactments, and a book signing at the Torrington, CT Public Library this past Thursday. One of the people who showed up was Eric Van Leer, a friend from college whom I hadn’t seen in over forty years! Turns out he lives only a few miles from Torrington, and saw the event listed in the local paper. He and I were both in the college’s Equestrian Club, in fact both of us bought our first horses while we were in school. Like me, he still has horses, and after the event was over (he helped me with the shootouts, doing a fine job of killing me, and later an excellent job of dying when I tried to arrest him and when he went for his pistol gunned him down) invited me back to his place to see his horses. We ended up talking for hours, catching up on old times and making plans to visit regularly. He now has a Morgan horse, and he reminded me that most people don’t realize the Morgan was a very popular horse in the frontier West, being used for cattle work, pulling stagecoaches, and as a general riding mount. The Morgan was the first true American breed of horse, and a rarity in that every Morgan can be traced back to a stallion named Figure, who was owned by a Vermont farmer named Justin, you guessed it, Morgan. Figure passed his traits to every mare he was bred to. Morgans are compact and tough, gentle and intelligent, so were well suited to life on the frontier.

Back to the Texas Rangers. Did they in fact hand-carve their badges? Were there Hispanic and African-American Rangers? Native American Indian Rangers? How about females? When were they founded, 1823 or 1835?

For answers to these questions and more, tune in Thursday March 14th, same blog time, same blog channel (with apologies to the old Batman TV series)

Six Sentence Saturday--Death Rides the Rails James J. Griffin

Howdy, and welcome to this week’s edition of Six Sentence Saturday. I’m Jim Griffin, and I’ll be your host for today. Later on, I’ll be placing names in my Stetson and drawing one name at random from all today’s commenters and visitors. That person will receive an autographed copy of my latest book from Solstice Publishing, Death Rides the Rails, A Texas Ranger Jim Blawcyzk story (or an ebook if the winner is from outside the United States, since the Postal Service has just jumped shipping rates tremendously). So make sure to leave a comment before you check on out. And speaking of Death Rides…

   “Conductor, I insist you tell me why this train is being delayed. Immediately!”
     In vain, a flustered Mike Hardy, chief conductor on the Texas and Pacific’s Shreveport-El Paso Limited, looked around the crowded Dallas station platform for help.
     “I’m sorry, Miz…”
     “It’s Mrs. Mrs. Isaac Hollister,” the middle-aged matron snapped. She waggled her finger under his nose. “I demand to know when we’ll be on our way.”
     “As I’ve already explained, Mrs. Hollister,” the harried conductor replied, “I really don’t know any more than you. I can only tell you we have orders to wait for the local from Austin, and it’s late. There’s a passenger on that train who must make his connection with this one. I checked with the station agent a few minutes ago, and he assured me the Austin train will be here within a half-hour. Once it arrives and the passenger transfers, we will be on our way, I assure you.”

All right, I’ll admit there’s a couple more than six sentences. Math never was my strong suit. Mea Culpa.

So, fairly innocuous start to the story, right? We have an fast passenger train being held for some V.I.P., probably an important businessman or prominent politician. After all, it must be some really high and might muckety-muck for the Texas and Pacific to delay their crack express.

The only thing is, the person the train is being held for is Texas Ranger Lieutenant Jim Blawcyzk, and his one man horse, Sam. Jim will be riding the train to what should be a routine assignment up in the Texas Panhandle. Unfortunately, a gang of outlaws have other plans. They wreck the train, kill the engineer, fireman, and messengers, and loot the express car safe of $20,000.00.

Jim barely survives the flaming wreckage, but after helping the survivors, the badly injured Ranger goes after the men responsible for so much death and destruction. However, what at first appears to be a simple train robbery turns out to be something much more sinister. The robbery is part of a much larger plot to destroy the Texas and Pacific Railroad. Jim finds himself in a race against time to ferret out the men behind the plans, before they cause even more mayhem.

Death Rides the Rails was originally released as a self-published book, Trouble Rides the Texas Pacific. Nik Morton at Solstice liked the original and picked it up to add to the Solstice catalogue. Thanks to Nik and fellow Western Fictioneer Charlie Whipple, who did a fantastic job of editing, this is a much improved version of the novel.

Since I’ve always been interested everything Western and particularly in the Texas Rangers, when I started writing (thanks to the encouragement of another Western Fictioneer, James Reasoner), it was only natural I would write Texas Ranger novels. Jim’s unusual last name is Polish, a tribute to my Polish ancestors on my mother’s side, and to the many Poles who settled in Texas in the 1850s. Like all my stories, there is plenty of action, and good guys who are unequivocal good guys. Most of my books are suitable for anyone from age ten and up. You can let your grandma read them and not be embarrassed.

If you like a good, traditional, action-packed Western, (and you want to learn how to pronounce “Blawcyzk”) I hope you’ll order a copy of Death Rides the Rails. It’s available in print and as an ebook from the publisher at www.solsticepublishing.com, through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online retailers, and autographed copies are available through my website at www.jamesjgriffin.net, or drop me a note at PO Box 1714, Keene, NH 03431. If you get a chance, check out my site for information on my other books, and also to see me and my horse Yankee doing some of our therapy work and tricks.

Next time I’m blogging here at Western Fictioneers, February 7th, we’ll be talking horses. Want to know what a pie-biter is? Stop by and find out.

Adios for now. See ya down the trail, and thanks!

Jim

Photo credited to Susanne Hall