Thursday, November 16, 2017

Dakota Boomtown


Brule, Dakota Territory, was a town beginning to boom, he had heard.  Nearest railhead to Deadwood, which was doing some brisk booming of its own. A place where a man might do many things—get himself shot, maybe, or win a fortune.”



This Frank Castle Fawcett Gold Medal offering from 1958 is a sort of two-in-one affair. The 1st half of the novel has a laid back genial vibe very much like James Garner’s “Support Your Local Sherriff” [an excellent flick by the way.) I found this quite enjoyable.

The second half goes for a darker tone and completely loses the affable timbre-I feel it suffers for this. Keep the 1st half and you’ve got an easy B+ read, but the tone-jarring second half takes it to a C for me.

I will say the novel has some of the most intriguing playing poker scenes I’ve come across in print. Thoroughly detailed in a play-by-play manner, but so well-written they never lost me in minutia. The author is able to somehow make the flick of a card vibrant. Quite a card trick, that.

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