The Lawless Frontier - Softcover

Denmon, Randy

3.88

8 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786018348 ISBN 13: 9780786018345

Publisher: Pinnacle Books, 2006

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After a successful rescue mission, Myles Adams, an officer for the U.S. War Department, and his partner Stewart Cook find themselves on the run from Jorge Trevino, a vicious bandito, who introduces them to the horrors of the Mexican frontier. Original.

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Review:

A hard-bitten tale of sacrifice in the Wild West.

The spirit of old John Wayne movies is alive and well in this rough-and-tumble western. Denmon takes all the conventions inherent in the traditional horse opera and manages to flesh out a plausible, articulate action novel with a brisk, satisfying pace. The book is set during the last bloody gasp of the Old West, during the early years of the 1900s. Pancho Villa and his minions both terrify and inspire the peasants of northern Mexico as the revolution threatens to devolve into civil war. Into this conflagration enters stalwart Stewart Cook, a wandering caballero whose fiancée, Alexia Garcia, is lost behind enemy lines. Stewart may not be much of a rescuer by himself, but he's tough as nails, determined and backed up by a first-class partner with menace to spare: Myles Adams is a classic western hero straight out of the old serials, a lantern-jawed, steely-eyed gunfighter with all the verbal dazzle of Gary Cooper. In fact, the laconic cowpokes do much more talking than shooting, but only after a sudden, brutal gunfight between the partners and some banditos kicks off the action. By the time Myles and Stewart ride into Santiago, Mexico, to mount a jailbreak of Alexia and her entire family, they've managed to enrage Jorge Trevino, "one immoral, pestilent bastard," who's figured out that there's more money to be made in plundering the war-ravaged populace than in fighting the war itself. Trevino also holds a personal grudge against Myles, not to mention turning a lustful eye toward his mistress. Though they begin with an unappealing genre superficiality, Myles and Stewart eventually become fully formed characters. The story's framing device--a reconstruction by Myles' grandson of the bloody battles in Mexico--is unnecessary but innocuous. In between, there's plenty of dramatic conflict and antiquated bravado to satisfy fans of milder western fare.

A straight-shooting, old-fashioned horse opera. -- Kirkus Discoveries

Myles Jefferson Adams joins friend Stewart Cook and other partners-in-arms to rescue Cook's fiancée, Alexia Garcia, from rebel forces in war-torn Mexico in 1914. Along the way, Adams makes a bitter enemy in bandit Jorge Trevino, who wants Adams' love, the stunning Carmen Cologan, for himself. Trevino vows to see Adams - and all his friends - dead.

In his first novel, newcomer Randy Denmon paints a chilling picture of the savage Mexican frontier. His prose is terse, and often provocative. The Lawless Frontier works well as a buddy story, action-adventure, and a traditional Western in a nontraditional setting. -- Roundup Magazine

Set on the verge of the Mexican Civil War, Myles Adams, an officer for the U.S. War Department, has agreed to extradite his friend's fiancé and her family from the war-torn country. Complicating matters is the infamous bandito, Jorge Trevino, who has his own plans for Adams' native wife. From the beginning their daring plan goes to pieces leaving Adams and his group in dire straights in a lawless country where only the law of the gun makes right as they try to make it back across the border. Moving, brutal and tragic, The Lawless Frontier is both a wonderful debut novel as well as a resounding statement in a genre that most have given up for dead. -- READER'S PAGE

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