The Guns of Billy Free - Softcover

Bowman, Doug

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812590287 ISBN 13: 9780812590289

Publisher: Forge Books, 2000

Synopsis

When a deputy is murdered in cold blood, twenty-one-year-old Billy Free is accused of the crime. A sheriff and his posse attempt to force their way into his mother's cabin and Free shoots them dead, immediately becoming the object of an extensive manhunt. Although he manages to elude a Greene Country posse and make his way back to Texas, a county sheriff named Bill Fink is waiting to teach him that crooked lawmen are by no means unique to Mississippi. Suddenly Free is in more trouble than ever., fleeing across the Texas frontier to a place where all but the beautiful and loyal Bess Noble believe him to be guilty of murder.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

While the title promises blazing six-gun action, Bowman's latest western (after Houston) turns out instead to be a sappy, saddlesore melodrama of yet another young cowboy forced down the outlaw trail by crooked lawmen and bad luck. Young Billy Free flees his home in Mississippi and runs to Texas in the 1870s after bushwhacking two deputies who tried to arrest him for a murder he didn't commit. He may not have killed that first fellow, but Billy makes up for the omission as he wanders across Texas, plugging bad guys and good guys while convincing himself they all deserved it. As naive as they come, Billy can't tell his friends from his enemies and falls in love with the first girl who shows him any attention, Bess Noble, a mousy shopkeeper about as bright as her hard-riding paramour. With corny dialogue, an abundance of useless detail (Who cares what Billy eats at every meal?) and caricatures of western characters, this lame hayburner has no spark.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Billy Free is just a hard-luck kid from Mississippi with no qualms about pulling a trigger when cornered, and he's cornered a lot. This sixth novel by an author who's also a Grand Ole Opry performer is mostly a chase tale that carries its star-crossed protagonist first north, then south, then west into Texas. Framed for the murder of a deputy sheriff by a man seeking to steal his mother's land, Billy kills both the bad guy and his brother when they attempt to muscle their way into the family cabin. Thanks to a sheriff who appears just bright enough to feed himself and take a bribe, Billy becomes a wanted man. A crooked sheriff in Texas, aptly named Fink, ices Billy's cake and adds to his reputation as a killer with well-notched pistol grips. Only sweet Bess Noble, who is everything her name implies, believes in Billy. Unfortunately, their love is not enough to save them. It does, however, provide a good ending to an entertaining tale. Budd Arthur

About this edition

• Publisher: Forge Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0812590287
• ISBN 13: 9780812590289
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288