The Red Hills (Crow #1)

Author: James W Marvin
First Published:  1979
Pages: 128

"Know what Crow used to say about livin' by your guns? Said it made him like a kind of alchemist. Said he was the first man in history to turn lead into gold. Yeah. Meanest son of a bitch ever. Crow."

No other name. Just Crow. Dressed in black from head to toe. The meanest man in the bullet-scarred annals of the West. Nobody ever turned their back on him. A cold voice in the shadows, a vengeful angel of death ... 

Time was when Crow was a Lieutenant in the Cavalry. A time when he rode against Crazy Horse and the Sioux. Commanded by Captain Silas Menges, a bloated, drunken obscenity of an individual. Even Menges' beautiful, sensual wife, Angelina, couldn't make up for the insults Crow took from him. No one crossed Crow and Lived. No one ... "

The Red Hills is the first novel in a series about a man named Crow. Just Crow. Written by James W Marvin a pseudonym for Laurence James, the prolific British-born author who also wrote other popular Western series Apache, Herne The Hunter, Caleb Thorne and Gunslinger. Piccadilly Publishing have brought a few of these series to us in eBook format recently (Great work Piccadilly!) and I'm a happy man. I loved this. There is possibly some parallel to be had with the Edge series by George G Gilman (Terry Harknett, who actually collaborated with James on a few occasions), in that I guess this series was trying to cash in on the popularity by having a similar sort of anti-hero. Crow only lasted for eight books though, as opposed to the massive 60+ of Edge. I am looking forward to finding out if this series loses its way or get repetitive quickly. Anyone with better knowledge please feel free to comment?

Crow is introduced to us straight away and it is immediately obvious he is a total bastard. Using his trademark sawed-off double-barreled shotgun to blow the head off of a little girls pet dog just because it won't give up Crows yellow neck scarf sets the bar. This is not a man to upset. Dressed all in black, tall, lean and mean, this is a no nonsense dude.

The story (framed within the structure of an old man being interviewed - might it be Crow himself?) centers around Crows involvement as a Lieutenant in the Cavalry deep in Indian country. He is set off against a truly manic, over the top, drunken commanding officer, Silas Menges, who is hated by his troop and who Crow instantly has no respect for. Complicated into this is the addition of the Captains' wife, who pretty quickly takes a shine to our anti-hero. There follows bad decision after bad decision by the officer, poorly planned raids to attempt to rid the area of Indians, and Crow eventually getting his end off with Mrs Menges, which seals the deal for a showdown with the Captain.

It feels a little strange that Crow is presented as a no nonsense son-of-a-gun initially, but for the rest of the book we see him struggling to restrain himself from reacting to the awful actions of his senior officer. However, this provides the reader with their own feeling of frustration, and all builds up to the final climax and Crow eventually handing out his own truly ghastly revenge on Menges.

I really, really enjoyed this book, Marvin cleverly presents his plot without any fluff, delivers great, bloody action scenes, a bit of gratuitous sex, and a satisfying ending for the 'baddies'. I like the format of Westerns with an anti-hero such as Crow or Edge - that feeling of the violent 70's spaghetti western brought to novel form is great. Highly recommended.