Outrage at Blanco

When I was growing up, Roy Rodgers was still “King of the Cowboys” and Gene Autry’s “Melody Ranch” was winding down a long run on CBS radio. Roy and Gene were, of course, the good guys and they always handled black-hatted scoundrels with relative ease. Well, I’m here to tell you that even Roy and Gene would have had their hands full with villains like those in Bill Crider’s western novel Outrage at Blanco.

Set in the small-town Texas of 1887, Outrage at Blanco begins with a kick directly to the reader’s gut. Ellie Taine, on her way back to the farm with a wagonload of groceries, encounters two cowboy psychopaths only a mile out of town where she is brutally raped and beaten by the men. The cowboys plan to be in Blanco show more only as long as it takes to rob the town’s one bank, and not being at all worried about being called to account for the rape, they allow Ellie to live. Bad mistake, that.

Ellie Taine has had enough, and after her husband fails in his own efforts to hold the men accountable for what they did to her, Ellie goes after them herself. But she does not plan to bring these guys back to the sheriff when she finds them – she has other plans for their immediate future. Outrage in Blanco, though, is more than just a shoot-‘em-up western. Crider has populated little Blanco, Texas, with a whole cast of characters who get involved in everything from bank-robbing to incompetent attempts at heroism to living life at the fullest before it is forever too late to do so. Some of them deserve a book all their own.

Crider pulls no punches (this is an adult western, for sure) in Outrage in Blanco but, in the end, this is a bit of a feel-good story with a lesson or two to teach along the way. The body-count is high, and as opposed to the movies I grew up on, not just among the bad guys, but it is largely a character driven novel, so readers get the best of both worlds. Fans of western novels need to check out this one.

(There is also a second Ellie Taine novel titled Texas Vigilante.) show less

Outrage at Blanco, An Ellie Taine Thriller by Bill Crider is a well written book that kept my attention from beginning to end. I enjoyed the prequel to Texas Vigilante very much. I gave it five stars.

"Jink stood up. He was as slim as a snake, narrow in all the places that Ben was wide, & short where Ben was tall. He had a bristly three-day growth of brownish whiskers & small black snaky eyes that were hard to see under the bony ridge of his brows."

I would like to thank the publisher, Brash Books & NetGalley for a complimentary kindle copy. That did not change my opinion for this review.

Fargo, Texas

As I read this story I was reminded of the film Fargo, with its simplistic form and dialogue hiding deeper meaning. The main story is conventional, a greedy son plots to steal father's money and enlists the services of two hard men who turn out to be ruthless in the way a thinking person, which this son is not, might expect. The important lessons, as in Fargo, are seen in the persons who are drawn into the story by events. Excellent short read.

I received a review copy of "Outrage in Blanco" by Bill Crider (Brash) directly from the publisher.

A trip to town and back for Ellie Taine has gone very wrong as this western from author Bill Crider begins. Just outside of the small Texas town of Blanco she had made the mistake of stopping for the two men who seemed friendly. As it became clear they had something else on their minds, she thought they only meant to rob her. Unfortunately for Ellie, robbery wasn’t what they wanted. Ben Atticks and Jink Howard wanted something much more personal to Ellie than the few items she had purchased in town at Roger's Mercantile.

When they were done with her they left her alive. That was another mistake in a long line of mistakes in their criminal careers. What happened to Ellie is just part of this very good western from Texas author Bill show more Crider.

Originally published in 1998 by Dell Books, Outrage at Blanco is now available as an e-book. Reminiscent of The Baby Shark Series by Robert Fate in that a rape spurs a woman to seek justice on her own, this western set in the Hill Country of Texas features a number of interesting characters. A complicated tale of vengeance and redemption for several characters results in a book that moves forward at a rapid pace despite the many players and almost as many agendas.

Outrage at Blanco (Ellie Taine)
Bill Crider
http://www.billcrider.blogspot.com
ASIN: B00DHM0B2U
June 2013
E-Book
240 Pages
$2.99

Material was picked up during the author’s recent free book promotion for my use in an objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014
Mind Slices and Carpathian Shadows, Volume II
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