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| Corgi, 1971 |
Author: Louis Masterson (aka Kjell Hallbing)
First Published: 1971 (English), 1966 (Norwegian)
Pages: 129
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| eBook Cover |
The subject for today's review is Morgan Kane, and the inaugural book Without Mercy. Morgan Kane is a Texas Ranger, and eventually a US Marshall. The books were written by the Norwegian writer Kjell Hallbing, who published them under the name of Louis Masterson. They run to a staggering 83 volumes and have sold over an estimated 15 million copies worldwide.
I won't go further into the background of the author, as the are many other retrospectives available online, written by people with a much better appreciation and knowledge of Western fiction than I; one very good one to point you towards would be by Ben Bridges, author and co-founder of Piccadilly Publishing, whose informative article is published on his website.
I was attracted to this series, quite honestly by the cover art on the British editions, published by Corgi in the seventies, an example of which is at top left of this page. From what I can gather so far, this cover art design did not last, and some of the higher numbers in the English language editions sport a couple of different revised layouts, probably to tie into other Corgi Westerns of the period. The last English language edition published in paperback appears to be number 41, Killer Kane. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Without Mercy starts with Kane being hammered at the poker table - he loses a lot of money, and is not best pleased about it. Kane is a gambler, he likes to play poker, and supplements his living by earning extra dollars in the saloons. Next up, Kane is travelling on a train to his next destination and notices a beautiful woman in the same carriage. He makes a play for her, and she reciprocates. He finds himself outside the carriage with this wondrous beauty - but there is a surprise in store for him. The next we know Kane has been shot through his gun-hand, then sadistically shot at point blank range in the gut, by the gang of a villain he has recently shot down.
Kane finds himself hurled from the train as it races between stations, and left to die in agony, alone and without help nearby. With just the buzzards and the ants to keep him company the Texas Ranger prepares himself as best he can for the inevitable. Back at his headquarters his boss, Major Matt Monroe, reluctantly strike him from the roster of Rangers, presuming him dead.
Meanwhile, Kane's assailants, Troy Duncan (brother of Rex who was shot by Morgan), Milo Stuart, Scott Corbin and the very attractive Allison Mackay (who it turns out was Rex's lover and who is now being pursued by his brother) have made good and are raking in the money via a rigged roulette wheel in the Purple Heart Saloon and Hotel.
Of course, Kane survives. Fortuitously, the shot to the gut ricocheted off his gun and only wounded him. The shot to his gun hand though is more serious. By chance he is rescued by a farmer, Randy Swift who, with the help of his wife and lovestruck daughter, aid Kane back to health. However, his hand is badly damaged, and one finger made useless. Kane devises a way to strap two fingers together to allow him to practise and practise until he feels he is almost back to his full strength and his speed at quick-drawing is good enough to seek revenge on the Duncan gang.
This book was very well written, all characters have some depth, and at least in this first story Morgan Kane goes through some significant events, from being a confident and successful Texas Ranger, to being a broken man, and then a man doubting his ability to perform to his previous levels.
Additionally the villains of the piece have some background, not much to be fair, but enough to make the story very enjoyable and to have some opposing points of view that are not just the opposite of the hero. Masterson (and the translator) have written a very engaging novel which I had great pleasure in reading. I can see why this series lasted for so long if this is the level of quality to come in future books.
Highly recommended, and I'm sure many people will have read these back in the day. Just don't go out and buy all the paperback copies - 'cos I want them!
The eBook cost me £2.84 on Amazon UK. There were very few formatting errors in terms of spelling, but throughout the book there were missing 'breaks' between passages (for instance where the point of view changed between characters). This is something I have noticed a few times recently and it can be quite jarring the first time you encounter it. There appears to have been an effort to finance a Morgan Kane film a few years ago. IMDb shows it as still in development. The promotional artwork for the film has been used on the eBook cover, and I guess that might be why we have five of the first 83 stories in digital form now. Unfortunately, five is all we have in English - the rest are in Norwegian. So unless the movie gets made or someone else shows an interest in bringing them to eBook format, it looks like that is all we will get for the near future.