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The best Western short story collection I've ever read.

The previous Western anthology that I read claimed to contain the 20 greatest Western short stories ever written, starting with Mark Twain and ending with Elmore Leonard. I enjoyed this one more. All the stories grabbed my attention and kept me enthralled, and I reckon it'll be the same for Western veterans or for people who have never read a Western before.

There's both traditional tales and something a little different, but even with the traditional ones the themes differ. For instance, Derek Rutherford and Ben Bridges provide tales of jailed men seeking to escape to exact their revenge, except one is a rip-roaring adventure yarn... More > while the other is an emotional tale of redemption. There's Indian Wars tales by Ross Morton and Chuck Tyrell, but again they are different being either elegiac or action-packed. The same goes for the bandit tales, lawman tales, bank robbery tales, manhunt tales, revenge tales... the range is considerable by the guys and gals who are represented here at their best.

Then there are the stories you'd never expect to read in a Western anthology such as Lance Howard's moving tale of disability or C. Courtney Joyner's gripping tale that borders on the supernatural. It's hard for me to pick my personal favourites as I liked every story, but if forced I'd choose two. Edward A. Grainger's tale is a fun romp, part action western, part 'locked room' mystery, with a memorable main character who I'd love to read about again. Cash Laramie is such a great creation he can't be allowed to exist only in this story. Then there's Evan Lewis's comic tale, which starts with a decent Western story and then subverts your expectations with brilliant word-play and madcap surreal events. This one had me laughing out loud so much I had to read it again. And it still made me laugh second-time round! < Less