"I've never read a Western before..."

"I've never read a Western before, but after reading this I plan on reading LOTS more..."

Man, I love hearing that.

Some of you may already know that I wrote a novella (or long short story or whatever you want to call it) for Edward A. Grainger, author of the terrific series of stories about U.S. Marshals Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles. It's out today.

It's called "Miles to Little Ridge", and focuses tight on Gideon Miles. Here's the product description from Amazon:

"Edward A.Grainger's Gideon Miles hits the trail in this fast-clip western novella written by Heath Lowrance. The U.S. Marshal finds himself in the sleepy town of Little Ridge, Montana, on the search for a wanted man. But just as Miles enters town, he's spotted by a hard case who recognizes Miles as the lawman that killed his friend. Now Miles must face the wanted man, who claims his innocence and is raising a daughter on his own, while the hard case and a ne'er-do-well partner are gunning for him."

When I first read the stories of Cash and Miles, I never thought I'd be writing one myself. I was fairly new to Westerns myself at the time. But Grainger's sure hand with the Western genre was part of my inspiration for writing "That Damned Coyote Hill", the first Hawthorne adventure. Granted, Hawthorne exists in a different version of the Old West than Grainger's intrepid lawmen (one where there are were-coyotes and swamp witches and ghouls) but most of the basics remain the same-- an emphasis on action and wry humor.

I loved the experience of writing about Gideon Miles, and I'm pretty satisfied with the results. Hopefully, you'll dig it too. And if you're new to Westerns, maybe this will inspire you to read more of them!

No Rules: DAVID CRANMER

If you don't know who DAVID CRANMER is by now, I don't know what to do with you. You are clearly someone who doesn't pay attention. Listen this time, okay? Cranmer is the editor and publisher of one of the most consistent and entertaining crime zines around these days, BEAT TO A PULP. He's also a writer of tight and clever crime fiction that's appeared all over the webs and in print. And-- most importantly for our purposes today-- he is the alter-ego of one EDWARD A. GRAINGER, author of the best-selling ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE & GIDEON MILES, VOLUME ONE and VOLUME TWO.

I wrote reviews of both volumes when they came out, you can find them here and here, and I don't have much to add except that, having read a whole lotta Westerns since then, the stories of Laramie and Miles STILL stand up as some of the most fun short stories I've read in a long time, regardless of genre.

I'm please to have Cranmer here at Psycho-Noir today, talking about the genesis of his Grainger pseudonym.

The Original Edward A. Grainger and His Influence

This picture is of the original Edward A. Grainger. He died twenty-eight years before I was born and what little I know of him comes from fragmented stories from my mom. He owned an import/export business in Georgetown, Guyana. He wrote two religious books, Wither Are We Drifting and Messages of Love and Light. He died in Trinidad at the age of 40 from alcoholism.

He wrote two books. My grandfather, the author.

My mom has told me many times of when she was a little girl, she wrote a story, Tula of the Jungle, and my grandfather took it to work with him one day, typed it out on the typewriter, and brought it back to her. Typing out that story was probably an insignificant moment to Grandpa Grainger, but it was an act of love that made his daughter very happy one afternoon, one that paid forward through the years and down the line as she passed along her joy to me.

My mom never mentioned writing anything again, but it was all I needed to spark the fire in me. I tried my hand at it in my teen years and then again more seriously in my mid-thirties. And here I am now, writing noir westerns and crime fiction, editing and publishing a webzine, and enjoying every minute of it.

Thanks, Grandpa.

Kindle Review: ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE & GIDEON MILES V. 2, by Edward A. Grainger

The Western is alive and well, as evidenced by the work of Edward A. Grainger, better known ‘round these parts as one Mister David Cranmer. A few months back, he released THE ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE & GIDEON MILES, a short story collection of remarkably thrilling tales—see my review here. Almost instantly, we readers were harassing him for more, and he’s delivered, in spades. THE ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE & GIDEON MILES VOLUME II is, believe it or not, far, far better than the first volume. The action scenes are cleaner and there’s more emotional depth. It’s clear that Grainger-Cranmer has evolved as a writer, gotten closer to perfecting his craft. Maybe this comes from the deep understanding he seems to have of his hero, Cash Laramie.

The collection starts with “The Origin of White Deer”, the almost novella-length story of young Cash (before he was Cash), his last good-byes to the Arapahoe family who raised him, and his first violent encounter with the white world that set him on his path as a seeker of justice.

The very short “Maggie’s Promise” is a scathing, heartfelt indictment of racism—a theme that runs through a lot of the Cash Laramie stories.

“Miles In Between” shifts the focus to Cash’s sometime partner, Gideon Miles, and it’s the only story in the collection this time to feature him (aside from a very brief cameo later on). Gideon hasn’t been nearly as fully developed as Cash, and I hope in the next volume we get more about him.

“Cash Laramie and the Painted Ladies” is a very clever mystery story in which our man Cash displays some knowledge of Lepidopterology that comes in remarkably handy.

“Gun Justice” is probably my favorite this time out—Cash is out for vengeance against the lowlife who killed a beloved friend of his, and the fact that the killer has retreated to a town where everyone is on his side doesn’t change a thing. Cash faces off against the lot of them in a brilliantly crafted action scene.

“Cash Laramie & the Masked Devil” is also a bit of a mystery tale, with a satisfyingly Scooby-Doo-like ending.

And finally, the somber “Reflections in a Glass of Maryland Rye” finds Cash drunk and lamenting a horrible mistake in a story that examines the high cost of violence, and how the quest for justice can sometimes lead to monstrous tragedy.

THE ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE & GIDEON MILES VOL. II is a top-notch collection, not just for Western fans, but anyone who appreciates solid stories told with emotional resonance and total conviction. I hope Grainger never stops writing them.

A Fistful of Westerns

A month or so ago, I started reading Westerns, going at it with all the weird obsessiveness that I normally display while pursuing a new interest. Like crime fiction, the Western genre is proving pretty diverse, and the level of quality has been all over the place… but I’m getting a pretty good sense of what I like, what I hate, and what I’m completely indifferent to.
Here’s some brief thoughts on my first seven forays into the Wild, Wooly West.

Valdez is Coming- Elmore Leonard
Yeah, I started with Leonard because I knew it would be great. How could it NOT be? Valdez is a lawman who gets zero respect, until enduring a violent public humiliation—that’s when he comes back, guns blazing, and shows them all what he’s made of. Lean and mean, hardboiled Western. I immediately ordered all his other Westerns on E-Bay, that’s how much I loved this one.

The Burning Hills-Louis L’Amour
Trace Jordan is running from some corrupt land-owners and lawmen, and trapped like a rat in the rolling desert canyons. But the baddies are about realize that when Jordan’s back is to the wall, that’s when he’s at his most dangerous… I was a good 60 pages into this one, thinking perhaps I’d made a mistake, because it wasn’t working for me. But then, out of nowhere, it all started to mesh and I found myself really enjoying it. I intend to read more L’Amour.

Border Guns-Max Brand
Laconic cowboy/gunman Weldon tries to protect a frail young woman from some dastardly types, but keeps getting distracted by a criminally-minded femme who lures him into bad behavior on the other side of the border. I can’t tell you much more, because I wasn’t paying attention for long stretches. Weldon, as a hero, is SO laconic as to be goofy, except when he’s suddenly bold and decisive out of nowhere. Can’t recommend this one, sorry…

The Hawthorne Legacy-James Reasoner
Judge Earl Stark hitches up in the town of Delgado to determine who inherits a thriving cattle ranch now that the owner has died under mysteriously violent circumstances. Two brothers seem willing to kill each other for the inheritance, calling in hired guns, and Stark has to stay alive long enough to solve the mystery. A fun, solid detective story masquerading as a Western, with great action and fast pacing. Loved this one.



The Widowmaker Book One: Invitation to a Hanging-Robert J. Randisi
Disgraced former lawman John Locke is hired to oversee the complicated arrangements of a hanging in a small Texas town, but the Mexican bandit slated to die has other plans— his gang awaits for the right moment to strike, all the while getting valuable intel from someone inside the town. The story builds steadily, with only occasional outburst of action, until the final, action-packed finale. Gripping story.

The Trailsman: Slave Hunter-Jon Sharpe
The Trailsman, Skye Fargo, is minding his own business when he’s forced to stop some KKK-types from hanging an old black man. Next thing you know, Fargo is neck deep in sexy women, for some reason, and I can’t tell you anything else because I gave up on this one after 50 pages or so. Apparently, Skye Fargo has never met a man who didn’t tremble in fear before him, and he’s never met a woman who didn’t want to immediately nail him. Goofy, cardboard cut-out characters and unlikely action scenes. Skip it.

And finally….

The Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles-Edward a. Grainger
A top-notch collection of short stories about two lawmen who never let the law interfere with their sense of justice. Full review here.

So that’s the first round. In another month or so, I should have round two ready to go. Reviews of stuff by Loren Estleman, Zane Grey, Elmore Kelton, Robert P. Parker, Bill Pronzini, and others.
Happy trails.

Adventures of Cash Laramie & Gideon Miles, by Edward A. Grainger

We seem to be in the beginning stages of a real resurgence of interest regarding Westerns. I couldn’t begin to tell you why, but I’m thankful for it. My own interest in the genre is fairly recent as well, coinciding nicely with the new spike. Something in the water, I reckon. Or in the rotgut whiskey.
Riding the first wave of the Western resurgence is a fella we’ll call Edward A. Grainger, coming full-throttle out of the stable with the insanely fun short story collection The Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles.
Cash and Gideon are Marshalls in the town of Cheyenne in the late 1800’s, a time when lawlessness ran rampant and only a few dedicated men stood tall and ready to defend law and justice—or, in the case of our heroes, at least justice. They’re great characters, these two. Throwbacks, in a way, to the sort of steady and silent heroes you might remember from your youth: Shane, The Virginian, L’Amour’s Sackett family… you get the idea. The kind of gun-totting hombres you’d want on your side with the chips are down.
So yeah, there’s something charmingly old-fashioned about these stories, but Grainger is a smart enough writer to know that the modern reader needs something more than just a nostalgia trip, or a mythologizing of an era that’s already been mythologized to hell and back. These stories do more than that; they also give us a real picture of the ugly violence and rampant racism of the time. With Gideon Miles, a black man wielding authority in a time when that was almost unheard of, we have a hero who is confident, realistic in his world view, and—often—the moral center of his world.
But the bulk of the stories in Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles focus on Cash—a decent and resourceful man with an incredibly strong sense of right and wrong. In the introduction, Grainger says the stories were inspired by Leone’s terrific “spaghetti westerns”, but the truth is he gives us characters much more fully developed than that, and in Cash we have a hero who is more obviously on the side of the angels than anyone in those morally murky films.
And I guess there’s no point in being coy about it, as it’s an open secret anyway—Grainger is the pen name of David Cranmer, editor of Beat to a Pulp. I say this just in case you had any doubts about picking this collection up. Cranmer is a guy with impeccable taste in stories, and he doesn’t go any easier on his own work.
My personal favorites in Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles: “Kid Eddie”, in which Cash must escort a charming but psychotic criminal back to Cheyenne to face justice (Cranmer predicted I’d like this one a lot, and he was right), “Melanie”, which finds Cash at odds with a loutish wife-and-child abuser who can’t be touched by the law, but—maybe—can still face justice at the hands of Cash Laramie, and “The Outlaw Marshall”, where we see at last the lengths Cash is willing to go to in order to mete out justice—as the last story in the book, it’s probably the most brutal, and shows us a side of Cash that Grainger had only hinted at before.
All in all, some great stuff. The episodic nature of the stories would lend themselves well to being a television show, a la The Rifleman, Stagecoach, Gunsmoke, etc…
Man, wouldn’t that be great?
Anyway, buy this book. It’s only .99 cents, for a good 100 bucks worth of Western high adventure.