I, the Lawman

The Bloody Spur True West Magazine — *The Bloody Spur* by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins. (Kensington, $24).

Using characters created by Mickey Spillane, Max Allan Collins pays tribute to the mythic West and casts an informed eye on the end of an era in The Bloody Spur.

When railroad officials propose a spur to link the small, dying community of Trinidad, New Mexico, with the booming town of Las Vegas, one elderly rancher holds out, refusing to grant access through his vast acreage.

Many in town disagree, including Willa Cullen, the rancher’s daughter, and the fate of the town seems to hang in the balance. Meanwhile, a high-stakes poker game involving former gunfighter-turned-lawman Caleb York and various unsavory characters, including a notorious criminal known as The Preacherman, threatens to blow this combustible atmosphere wide open.

—Patrick Millikin, editor of Phoenix Noir

https://truewestmagazine.com/the-way-of-the-west-fiction/