Review from Western Fiction Review
THE VINEGAR PEAK WARS
By Hugh Martin
Hale, March 2012
Saddle tramps Cephas Dannehar and Slim Oskin drifted into the Vinegar
Peak country of Arizona Territory, helped an old colleague out of
trouble, were taken for hired gunmen and bucked the interest of the
Black Eagle copper mine and scheming Nate Sturgis, the self-styled Boss
of Vinegar Peak.
In a lead-peppered struggle between their horse ranching friends and
Sturgis’s toughs, known as the Peace Commission, bullets were soon
flying and fires of destruction were lit. All part of the growing pains
of a raw western territory, moulding its post-Civil War destiny.
Dannehar and Oskin were no angels but, throwing their guns in on the
side of right, they faced a war which could see Vinegar Peak become
respectable or its violent citizenry, prodded by grasping ambitions,
might make it an outlaw town ruled by thuggery and the lawless gun.
This is Hugh Martin’s fourth Black Horse Western and the first I’ve
read. I found the book to be extremely readable and filled with gunplay.
Right from the start when Dannehar and Oskin save their friend, which
leads to them being mistakenly taken for hired guns, the action never
lets up, from a violent raid on a ranch to a gripping battle in a
canyon, and then to the final exciting showdown in a confined space.
Hugh Martin’s landscapes are visually described and his characters are
as equally well drawn. Dialogue crackles and you can almost smell the
smoke of the gunfights. The story is superbly paced and builds well to
that final showdown.
The end leaves a couple of characters with an unwanted hero status, men
who will become known for something they did, which could lead them into
more danger. Hopefully Hugh Martin with write a follow-up book as I for
one would like to know what happens to them further down the trail. In
the meantime I’ll be checking out Hugh Martin’s previous books whilst
eagerly awaiting his next.
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