John B. Harvey

Hart The Regulator - Blood on the Border by John H Harvey

This is a a pulp western novella - not at all my usual reading matter, but I was attracted to this book as its author is the John Harvey, who writes the Resnick and Frank Elder crime stories. This is a classic tale of a small town riven by violence as rival parties of Stock Breeders and Townsfolk battle each other over the coming of the railroad.

Hart is called in to act as a hired gun by the town council, but it is soon clear that not everyone on the council wants him to survive. Although the good guys win and the bad guys lose the book has real characterisation and there are plenty of shades of grey. I'm glad I read it but I won't go out of my way to track down more of the series, as the genre doesn't really grip me.… (more)