S. L. Kotar

I can remember watching Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Maverick, Sugarfoot, The Deputy and other Westerns on television when I was young. Those programs and books of the same genre were favorites of my father and thus part of my early childhood. When I saw the offer to read and review the second book in the Hellhole Saga, a book written by co-writers for a well received episode of Gunsmoke, I had to ask for a copy. Thankfully I received one and also received the first in the series, too.

Claw Kiley is only 23 years old but much older than his years in life experiences…well in SOME life experiences. He is a big man in physique as well as in personality and heart. The writers have carefully crafted his character and background as well as those of other personalities in the story.

This first book in the series tells of Claw’s appointment as Marshall of Hellhole, Kansas and then tells of his arrival in town, how he settles in and of how he encounters the other players in town. There are a few gunfights and fistfights, a bank robbery and attempted jailbreak, some friends and enemies made, a potential romance, and a few puzzles to be solved. The main characters in this story are Claw, Cougar Bradburn – the saloon girl and Dr. Ward.

The writing is tight, descriptive, gritty and sometimes moody. The characters are very human and deal with life events in the best way they can in this town that sees the most of its activity when men come through with herds of cattle of hides of animals to be sold. And, as a side benefit, there are tidbits of history that prove interesting, educational and entertaining.… (mehr)

"Now what I want is facts," declared Mr. Gradgrind, the schoolmaster in Dickens' novel Hard Times. Facts about the early history of the circus are, clearly, what S. L. Kotar and J. E. Gessler wanted, and if that's what you're in the market for, then this is the perfect book for you. Every small-type page is packed with facts: Names, dates, places, prices, acts -- on and on with one fact piled on another like bricks in a wall, and every one traced back (in the exhaustive notes) to the source from which they gleaned it. As a reference work . . . a chronicle . . . a compendium of facts about the subject, it's impressive and useful.

As a book -- something you'd actually want to sit down and read -- on the other hand, it's a total loss. The prose is so dense, so dry, so artless, so one-damn-thing-after-another that it's like chewing your way through milk-less Shredded Wheat. Readers with a serious interest in the history of the American circus and American popular entertainment in the 18-19C will find the lack of context and a big picture daunting. Everybody, serious interest or not, will likely find the lack of an overall narrative shape (beyond "Then this happened . . . ") daunting.

Histories like this tend to be the work of ferociously dedicated amateur historians, who produce them as labors of love. (Professionals, to be sure, can write dry, tedious books too -- but they tend to be dry and tedious in distinctly different ways.) The blurb suggests that Kotar and Gessler fit this pattern perfectly. And it's a shame -- even in a book defined by its seriousness of intent, a trip to the circus ought to be fun.… (mehr)