WEDNESDAY 31ST MARCH 2010

This Wednesday is the official publication of my second western novel, Arkansas Smith, but it's already available from all the usual sources Hale, Amazon, Book Depository and anywhere else books are sold.

And if you fancy some western chat tune into Radio Wales this coming Friday at 3pm BST when I will be the special guest on the Roy Noble show - the BBC Radio station can be listened worldwide online - don't miss it because I promise to say, Yeehaw!


"There is a sadness about Arkansas Smith that I found unsettling and yet compelling. He has a "void deep inside himself that felt on times like a cavity in his soul. It was a need for identity that would always be there and would never be fulfilled." He's a man of few words and when he smiles, it's a grim smile that hints at a lot of tragedies played out in the past. He is an enigma who keeps his personal history to himself and who doesn't offer up too many explanations. While we are caught up in the dilemma at hand, we are never allowed to forget that we are dealing with a mysterious man here who has a few bones to pick with the world. In the post-modern world, he would be diagnosed as clinically depressed. In the 19th century western, though, he's simply trying to deal with the hand that's been dealt him.

Martin shows skill in allowing us to get inside Smith's head - but only so far. We'll think we know him as a stoic man who is all business and then he'll go off and kiss the girl on the cheek, leaving us to think, "Who IS this guy?" Martin also knows how to carry a story through realistic dialogue and so the pages fly by." LAURIE POWERS FULL REVIEW HERE