Louis Masterson (1934–2004)

I grew up watching westerns on television. I can honestly say that this is the first western novel I’d ever read. It took me back many years. The main character, Morgan Kane is a Teas ranger. He finds himself seeking revenge. While trying to bring a man in, he is forced to kill him. The man’s brother and friends set out to “make things right”. They know his weaknesses for women, alcohol and gambling, and they use these to lure him in. After losing a very large sum of money in a poker game he’s lured onto a train platform by a beautiful woman. Once there he is shot. He falls from the train but doesn’t die. After he heals, his mission is to go after the four people who tried to end his life. This is fast and steady in pace and adventure. The characters are very believable. When I learned that this was translated from Norwegian I was shocked that the author definitely knew what the old west was like here. This is definitely a series to look out for.… (mehr)

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

This is truly one of the more bizarre books we've ever received here at CCLaP headquarters; and unfortunately, unlike normal, I don't mean that in a good way today. Supposedly a popular American-style Western series in Norway where the author is from (his real name is not "Louis Masterson" but Kjell Hallbing, and the first volume originally came out almost half a century ago), 80 titles in size now and with a collective 20 million copies sold, this first-ever English edition of volume one arrived with great fanfare from one "WR Films" production company, with big talk about how this is in the process of getting made into the next fabled Big Hollywood Summer Franchise; but then when I sat down and actually read it, I learned that it's more like some weird Saturday Night Live sketch come to true life, where they're making fun of a northern European who decided one day to write an American Western "Shprokets" style, all weird and obtuse and with something indefinably off about the whole thing. This then led me down the rabbithole of the stranger and stranger WR Films, and all the truly weird inconsistencies inherent in their operations: their CEO is supposedly the former president of Warner Home Video, for example, which would make one assume them to be a company with millions to spare, yet their cover letter arrived on plain "Home Depot Special" laserprinter paper obviously outputted on some cheap home personal printer. Then there's the book's official website which turns out to point only to a big ad for cheap pharmaceuticals; and there's the fact that their cover letter declared them to be not WR Films at all but Velocity House Publishing, which based on my research seems to be one of those sceevy "franchise incubation factory" companies (you know, like James Frey's) that attempt to take an unknown author's franchise idea and "cook" it into a viable moneymaking bestseller and Hollywood production deal, through such ethically questionable activities as search-engine manipulation and the like. Whew, what a huge amount of behind-the-scenes hands and money that's already been attached to a mediocre Western that reads almost like a parody of itself!

Ultimately there's a detail here that neatly encapsulates everything wrong with Texas Ranger Morgan Kane #1: Without Mercy (and wrong with the entire "franchise incubator" concept for that matter, a bottom-line-oriented approach to publishing that tends to do yucky things like refer to novels as "content units" and "information reports"), which is that this book went out with literally dozens of obvious typos and punctuation errors, badly typeset and with too small a font; and while regular readers know that I'm usually very tolerant of such small mistakes when they come from basement presses, trying to put out an entire novel for fifty bucks and with one employee, this is from a company that's trying to present itself publicly as no less than the next Dreamworks, and from a company with that kind of staff and budget, the quality of this book is unacceptable, simply unacceptable. I consider it a real insult to me as a reviewer, and especially a reviewer who kindly offers to automatically review any book that a person takes the trouble to send me, to be forced to deal with a manuscript that's in such amateurish shape, from a company who should both know better and who has the money to do better; and if I could offer a little piece of advice to the executives over there at WR Films, before you spend any more money on fancy production design sketches, do us all a favor and hire a f-cking proofreader first.

Out of 10: 0.7… (mehr)

Morgan Kane: Without Mercy by Louis Masterson
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

Morgan Kane is all man: he is tough and rugged, worldly and wise, and, both a lover and a fighter. Kane loves his whisky as much as he loves his women, he is an accomplished poker player, can spot a cheat a mile away, believes wholeheartedly in justice, is quick with a revolver and, is absolutely dedicated to his job as a Texas Ranger. For thirty plus years, simple living, travel, and dedication to his work have been all that Morgan Kane needs. Oh sure, there have been a bevy of beauties to warm his bed but none he cared to stick around for. And while he down his fair share of alcohol and has won and lost at the poker table, he has never had a gambling or drinking problem.

Then there is the night that everything in Kane’s world begins to unravel: he loses roughly twenty grand at the poker table, he wasn’t able to spot the very cleverly hidden cheat, he got blind drunk and woke up the next morning with a splitting headache and a ticket to Fort Worth. Still puzzling over the previous nights’ events, Kane boards the train only to find himself seated across from a beautiful woman who seems nothing but interested in him. Seemingly, things are looking up until the moment Kane finds himself jumped from behind by three men who shoot him, more than once and throw him over the side of the train.

Left for dead, Kane is certain his life will never be the same. He has a gaping wound in his side, his shooting hand has been obliterated and he is pretty sure he was meant to die. While he is (mostly) certain of all those things, he is at all certain about the who or the why of the affair. And that, is reason enough to live. Though the recovery is hard, Kane makes the most of it and eventually finds his way back into the real world. With the help of a long-time, trusted friend and fellow Ranger, Kane discovers the location of the men (and woman!) who tried to take his life and sets out on a mission of justice.

The Bottom Line: Without Mercy started out just a bit slow but once the action began it kept up a steady and very good pace until the last chapter when there is a mad and somewhat weird race to the finish. Without Mercy is not my normal genre but I was so into this book and looking forward to a slammin’ ending. Unfortunately, what I got was awkward and so fast that I literally thought I had missed something and flipped back through the previous pages to be sure I didn’t miss anything. So, with the exception of the wonky ending, I really enjoyed Without Mercy and would certainly recommend it to all YA+ readers.… (mehr)