Sage Fire Reviews

Luke Dawson:  Wells Fargo Gun

Growing up with Gun Slingers

Growing up in the 1860's was not an easy proposition, regardless of where the person did their childhood.  This was certainly no better or worse than others in Kansas. Watching your ma killed in front of you, by bandits, ...well, the mental scars on a 10 year old were more or less expected.

Helping your dad, a colonel in the Union army, track the bandits down to administer justice first hand, ... as the visa commercial states, ... priceless.   The reader can see, the mental scars began to define the character who will be Luke Dawson.

Synopsis: 

The parade of historical figures marches past Luke as he grows older, Jim Hickock, George Custer, and others.  He saves a china man who just happens to be a black belt in one of the karate (open hand) styles, ... an incongrutity if ever there was one  After a long winded explanation of the differences in colt designs, he is gifted with a set of Colt .44-40 six shooters, for which he will become famous.

Luke becomes involved in a range and fence war, is approached by Wells Fargo to be an agent, and in general carries on into the 1880's. 

Will Luke accept the job with Well's Fargo?  Will he die as a gun slinger?  Will his ranch discover that fences will win in the end?   The reader will have to follow the series to find out.

Impression: 

This is the tale of the childhood for Luke Dawson.  It is not about his exploits as a Wells Fargo agent, at all. We can only surmise that tale is yet to come from the author. The only tie in, is the approach of Wells Fargo to hire him as he reaches his majority age. It is a tale of range wars, of learning to shoot from Wild Bill, and being right at home performing roundup tricks that Tom Mix would have been proud of., to amuse his friends and pay their way on trips.

Most young men and a few young women would feel right at home in this book. The adventures, the conflict, reflect an age of innocence well captured by Mr. Andrews.  But for the adult reader, the entire book leaves a mental taste of  "something is missing" which you can not put your finger on.  If you can handle that niggling feeling, then this is a highly recommended Western book.

Mr. Andrews has done an excellent job of pulping this story, and is clearly a master of his craft. Just as obvious, this is the first installment of what will be a series of western tales about Luke Dawson.  We can hope the rest in this series will be stronger than this initial offering.

RATING:  7 Campfires

Citations:

Author / editors / anthologists:

Title & length: 

Publishing House & date:

ISBN & LCCC :

Comparable publications:

Targeted readership:

Pre-teen to young adult.  Some adult readership, but theme is biased towards the adventerous pre-teen.

0 Flames for sexual content.

Author's credentials:

Denny Andrews was born in Anacortes, Washington. As a child he lived all over the Midwest, finally returning to live in Oak Harbor, Washington. He graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Political Science and a minor in History. While in college he also learned judo.

Denny joined the United States Air Force where he qualified as an expert in small arms and developed an interest in antique weapons. His interest in the old West and historically related events stems from the time he learned that he had a great-grandfather on each side of the Civil War.

He currently lives in Bellevue, Washington, with his wife, Lorna. They have four children and four grandchildren.

Luke Dawson is Denny’s first novel for AVALON.

Reviewer & reviewer credentials:

MD Johnson is a mountain northwest regional -- freelance author, living in Payette, Idaho. His writing interests include poetry, romance, westerns, science fiction, travel, and history. His work has appeared in a diverse range of publications including True Romance and Ballyhoo Stories. He is currently republishing the 1935 western classic historical novel, “The Bitterroot Trail” as the anthologist.

If you have a book or an ARC, you would like Mr. Johnson to review, please address your questions to him at queries@pencraft.biz.