STEVE CARROLL WRITES

Under a variety of house names, Laurence James was a mainstay of the UK-based Piccadilly Cowboy stable of writers and penned the  Crow  series, as well as  The Apache ,  Gunslingers , and the  Caleb Thorn  series.   Following a short prelude,  Worse than Death  introduces readers to a wagon train made up of Cavalry officer wives and a small detachment of soldiers escorting them through the blizzard-ridden Dakota Territories and into the sights of renegade Shoshone chief, Many Knives, who is on the warpath against whites. After an initial attack on the wagon train decimates the ranks and leaves the travelers stranded, our anti-hero, Crow, enters the scene and assists what’s left of the soldiers and the women.  Lest this sound like an altruistic bit of heroism, it’s made clear that Crow is only looking out for Crow and how he can best survive the situation. Much mayhem ensues as a series of attacks are repelled in some fierce, well-paced action described in gruesome detail. The combined

Six Gun   Samurai  (1981) by Patrick Lee (Mark Roberts) As was the case with many men’s adventure series,  Six Gun Samurai  was actually authored by 3 different writers all working under the house name of Patrick Lee; this first book’s copyright is attributed to Mark Roberts, who also wrote the odd-numbered books in  The Penetrator  series. Despite the fact that I have always had a strong affinity for martial arts-related adventure fiction, I did not enjoy this book and had to repeatedly force myself to keep slogging through to finish it.  The first book in this short-lived 8-book series introduces us to Tommy Fletcher, son of American missionaries to Japan in the mid-1800s. After a massacre leaves him orphaned, Fletcher is taken in by a samurai and trained in the art of Bushido, learning not only karate, but many different weapons forms, including, of course, mastery of the katana sword. However, years later word reaches Fletcher that his Savannah, GA home has been attacked and ransac