Rides a Stranger: The Journey of Jim Glass

The very first book I found from Bill Brooks was back in 1993 entitled 'Buscadero', and including this latest release, now have 14 of his books on my western shelves. Two main favorites are 'Moon's Blood' and 'Deadwood'. This latest book is one of a new trilogy, which seems to be the pattern of Mister Brooks' recent books, for he already has two other trilogies in print from Harper publishing. The two elements that raise Bill Brooks' writing above most other writers in the western fiction field are his style and his characters. While he uses a western backdrop for his stories, the storylines could just as well be mysteries or just plain fiction. The working out of both people and events as their individual lives intertwine are what sets his novels apart. And even in college English I recall charactization being foremost in any successful writing endeavor. This present work is not a western in the true formulaic sense such as a Luke Short, Ray Hogan, or Louis L'Amour, and that is due to examination of each character's inner being as contrasted with the other characters in the storyline. He looks for the inner matrix of each person, showing depth and feeling for each, be they good or bad. Though his 'westerns' are abit different they are also refreshing. And though his main character, such as a Jim Glass, may kill when needed, Glass really doesn't care for it. Jim Glass is more interested in setting things right, an ethical view to life approaching a 'live and let live' creed whenever possible. This novel set in New Mexico is a change from his more recent northern plains trilogy of the Dakotas, but every bit as interesting. Not just another 'shootem up' but a western story with 'sand' or as Louis L'Amour could say a man "to ride the river with". If you are looking for a mite different western story, then Bill Brooks might just be what you are looking for. Recommended. Semper Fi.

Bill Brooks has written eighteen novels of historical fiction, including one of my personal favorites, THE STONE GARDEN: THE EPIC LIFE OF BILLY THE KID, so I was pretty excited to dive into a new offering from him. RIDES A STRANGER: THE JOURNEY OF JIM GLASS is, on the surface, a tale that panders to many of the typical West cliches of the drifter who is good with a gun and his fists. Jim rides into the tiny town of Coffin Flats, New Mexico looking for work and finds it initially by duking it out with a traveling prize fighter. Not long after, the local Marshal, Chalk Bronson, hires him to rescue an old flame whose run away from her husband, an abusive rancher named Johnny Waco, and become a drug-addicted prostitute. From there, the story unfolds as Jim attempts to free her and ends up with far more trouble than he bargained for. As I said, on the surface, a story that doesn't particularly stretch the boundaries of the genre. Below the surface, however, is where this story truly lives. Brooks' characters - the main ones such as Jim Glass, Marshal Bronson and the fallen lady Antonia - and the secondary characters that enter the story later like Tom Twist and Maize Walker are so vivid and unique that it's impossible not to care about them. As the story moves, characters come and go... but stay with you, like little memories, and it is this that makes the book compelling. So often, authors focus only on the characters that are going to stay in the narrative, avoiding the risk of dealing with a character that won't last the duration of the story, but Brooks takes us in another direction, adding characters that may not last the duration but add instead to our vision and impression of the main character, Jim Glass. Each has an impact on him, adding to his depth, until a more clear picture of the kind of man this drifter is emerges. If I have any complaints about this novel, aside from the typical cover and cover text which plague almost all Western novels today, it's that there are times when another of Brooks' strengths as a novelist - namely, lyrical language - appears truncated. I'm not sure if he choose to pare his own language down or if an evil editor forced him to do so, but what I loved about THE STONE GARDEN was that the beauty and originality of the story itself was enhanced and uplifted by Brooks' deft and poetic handling of the language. This novel doesn't quite live up to that standard, though there are moments when this talent appears with surprising force. The ending felt a tiny bit rushed to me, and made me think that Brooks was trying to avoid going too far into the next story. Overall, this is a fine Western tale and does some fascinating things with characters (and naming conventions) that any reader would enjoy. If you like unique characters, you'll especially enjoy this novel and will find yourself grinning as Tom Twist, another man searching for himself, presents himself as John Wesley Hardin and interacts with Jim Glass using