Congrats to Eric Bishop on his DEBUT, The Samaritan's Pistol! A Rocky Mountain Thriller published by Jolly Fish Press!
I’d like to start by saying I knew NOTHING about this book
before opening it to the first page. I almost suggested Eric Bishop visit my blog and do a guest post, but...as I was one of the privileged few to receive an ARC of The Samaritan's Pistol I thought why not? And offered to do a review. The cover suggests some sort of crime
novel, and I had seen hints that it had a flavour of a Western. I’m not a big
fan of crime novels, and I don’t think I’ve ever read a Western, so I wasn’t
all jump up-and-down-y to read it.
But you gotta live a little. Westerns have horses, and I’m a
horsey person, so I thought I\d give it a try.
Enter Jim, the ex-military, PTSD-suffering, non-Mormon
Wyoming cowboy riding a horse named Sam. What’s not to love about a modern day
cowboy just trying to be nice and keep everybody happy? Especially when he’s a
sharp-shooter and has a great horse and a brilliant dog? Jim is just a good guy in a bad situation, and he knows how to make it all better again.
The Bad Stuff:
Not a lot bad to say. I liked The Samaritan’s Pistol right away, and read it
pretty-much straight through. There were a few times where I got a bit lost in
the dialogue, maybe because I’ve been an East-Coast Canadian pretty much all my
life. Sometimes I laughed out loud, and sometimes I just didn’t get it. Eric skirts around topics that were new to me,
like a non-Mormon cowboy picking at Mormon community life. Not sure how I feel
about this. Awkward? Uncomfortable? I couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to
take Jim’s religious leanings, or lack there of. Especially when the bad-guy
body count starts to pile up.
The Good Stuff: *spoiler alert*
There are many, many moments in the story I completely related
to. I loved it when Duke (the dog) found himself a nice piece of horse hoof to
chew on. How many times have I seen my own dog steal away with the same thing
after the farrier drove away? And when Brody the farm hand turns all bad-a**
and sets up a few bear traps for the bad guys, I wanted to cheer. Go Brody! Eric really brings the feel of a
Western ranch to life. The hard work, the friendly neighbours, the sounds and
smells, the ‘we take care of our own’ mentality. And the combination of cowboy,
gangster, ex-military stress and religious turmoil make for a solid read.
Although not my usual reading fare, I’d give The Samaritan’s
Pistol two thumbs up! Not sure if Mr Bishop has converted me to Westerns but
this is a great debut. Looking forward
to seeing what’s next from Eric Bishop!
The Samaritan’s Pistol is available from Amazon, B&N and
Goodreads. You can find Eric Bishop on Facebook, Twitter and his Website.
Also, join in on the draw to have a chance at winning a $15 Amazon Gift Card! Scroll down and see the box at the bottom of the posts!
