The Western Online

Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles

By Edward A. Grainger

Reviewed by Matthew Pizzolato

 

One of the biggest Western myths perpetrated by Hollywood is the idea of the good guy against the bad guy. The hero wore the white hat and the villain wore the black hat. When in actuality, there were many shades of gray. The ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE AND GIDEON MILES, by Edward A. Grainger portrays a couple of antiheros who regularly cross that line. These aren't your typical Western stories. Writing as Edward A. Grainger, David Cranmer successfully weaves a mixture of the Western, noir and mystery genres that are still every bit true to the Western genre. If you are a diehard Western fan, you will love these stories. Even if you don't like Westerns, you will still enjoy reading about Cash Laramie and

Gideon Miles. These are characters that are clearly influenced by the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name character. The one thing that can be said about U.S. Marshal Cash Laramie is that justice will be served, one way or another.

The prose is crisp and clean and sparkles with authentic detail. The stories deal with important themes that are handled in unique ways. In the story Melanie, Cash Laramie finds that sometimes justice must be meted out due to his own moral code when written law fails. In Miles to Go, Gideon Miles is forced to fight not only against criminals but against stereotype as well.

If you're looking for a sample before you click over to Amazon to purchase it, you need look no further than right here at The Western Online, where one of the stories in this collection, Kid Eddie, first appeared. The ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE AND GIDEON MILES has climbed all the way to Number 1 on the Amazon.com Top Rated Westerns List. It's there for a reason. Stories like these are the future of the Western genre.