Two Guns to Apache Wells (Shane and Jonah #2)

Author: Cole Shelton (aka Roger Norris-Green)

First Published: 1978(?)

File size/Pages: 3253kb / 110pp
Ebook Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing
Ebook Date: December 2019

Back in October 2019, I had fully intended to read all three of the first installments of Piccadilly Publishing's new release roster. But due to my terrible habit of being distracted by the lure of a new book (rather than sticking with the ones in my 'to be read' pile) I only got around to reading the opening book in Cole Shelton's series of stories featuring Shane Preston and Jonah Jones. My review of that book can be read here, and I was very surprised and honoured to have the author himself (Roger Norris-Green) comment on the Piccadilly Publishing Facebook page. Book 2 came out at the end of 2019, and I had already pre-purchased it based upon the opening book, Gun Law at Hangman's Creek. After finding myself having to abandon a rather unengaging book I was planning on reviewing, I wanted to quickly get into something I knew I'd be happy with - so I'm glad to be here with a review of Two Guns to Apache Wells.

I'll start off by saying this ebook has a much nicer piece of art on the cover. I didn't like the first cover, but this one is a lot better. I'm still not sold on this version of Shane Preston having a white hat, but at least he's wearing some black and the action could be taken from a scene in the story. Not that that should effect your reading experience I hasten to add, but it makes me happy so it might make you too. This could very well be art from the original paperbacks, but I am finding it hard to track images down on the internet, so cannot confirm.

Gun Law at Hangman's Creek (Shane and Jonah #1)

Author: Cole Shelton (aka Roger Norris-Green)

First Published: 1978(?)

File size/Pages: 3201kb / 111pp
Ebook Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing
Ebook Date: October 2019

October is a good month if you follow the release schedule of Piccadilly Publishing. Of the ten eBooks being published, three of them are the first novels in new series. It's always good to get in at the beginning of a run of books that you are following, so I have decided to give all three a chance beginning with Gun Law at Hangman's Creek, the opener for the Shane and Jonah sequence, which  I am led to believe via Wikipedia ran up to 25 novels.

The Shane and Jonah stories were authored by Roger Norris-Green, writing as Cole Shelton. As of the time of writing I've not been able to track down a list of the novels or their publication dates, but my guess is they began during the late seventies. Roger was born in Brighton, UK and emigrated to Australia with his parents when he was only thirteen years old. The family settled in the south of the country where Roger eventually began his writing career by submitting short stories to his school's magazine. He went into advertising and became successful enough to run his own agency. Following his marriage, and a period of study that led him to become a lay preacher in the Christian faith, Roger started writing professionally for the Cleveland Publishing Company. As well as writing around 140 westerns for Cleveland and Black Horse he has also published six novels about the Copper Coast and Christian faith books.