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Fargo #1
Fargo
Neal Fargo - adventurer, lover and fighter ... Fargo lives with a gun in his fist. Guns and killing are all he knows. And Fargo likes what he knows. Want to start a revolution? Want to stop one? Send for Fargo. Want to blow a bridge, stage a prison break, rob a bank? Fargo's your man. The Army taught Fargo how to kill with pistol, rifle, machine gun. He became an expert with knives, shotguns and women on his own time. Fargo hates the quiet life. He knows he's going to get it sooner or later. He hopes it won't be too much later because he wouldn't know how to be old and comfortable. So while it lasts, Fargo plans to grab the world by the throat and take what he wants. If the world doesn't like that, it can try to stop him ... if it can.
158 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1969
24 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
March 24, 2023
Above average male adventure with polished writing, attention to detail, good action sequences, and a good balance of grounded and gritty realism with over the top genre elements. The female characters are all disposable and almost all gratuitous per the genre. The plot is a bit by-the-numbers but I wouldn’t be surprised if the sequels were better than this first entry.
January 6, 2017
The twin pillars of male fantasy are sex and power. Dreams of willing woman and invincibility fill volumes of pulp novels. Ian Fleming said that he wrote for the region between mid-thigh and navel. John Benteen's FARGO has narrowed that scope a tad. No man, or army, can best Neal Fargo; he's Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, and Doc Savage rolled into one. Women, beautiful ones, are the sexual initiators. Seduction is never an issue. One look at his steely eyes and they fall into bed in minutes. The Fargo series has a following, and some respectability. It's man's man adventure stuff with gunfire and explosions galore. Logic need not be applied. Is it a good book? No. But it is a cracking good yarn. Warning: animals and women do not fare well in this testosterone fueled world.
May 20, 2018
Great South of the Border, Mexican Revolution action with lots of twists and turns and double crosses. Excellent.
February 6, 2023
This was a fun read. Fargo was a great! If you're fan of Men's Adventure fiction with a western twist this is for you. Its got a little bit of everything. Action, adventure, guns, knives, and of course beautiful women! It was fast paced. The hero even had a fear or two very unlike most adventure stories. I found this to make him a little more enjoyable. I'm going to be adding this to my series rotation. Very enjoyable!
March 31, 2018
The book is a blast featuring over-the-top action, multiple double-crosses, and a sizzling fast moving plot. Neal Fargo is a typical bad-ass pulp action hero, the Doc Savage or Mack Bolan kind, with almost limitless skills when it comes to fighting and seduction. Heavily plot-driven books like this succeed based on the strength of the story and this one is a crackling good one. I'm glad to see that Piccadilly Publishing is releasing the series in ebook format.
October 11, 2023
It’s old school books like this which force me to ask where modern thriller writers went wrong?
Fargo isn’t high art, and it’s not overly ambitious. It’s competent, tight storytelling creating a hard faced character who immediately feels rounded and real.
All this is accomplished without painfully obvious story mechanics or an author desperately attempting to make an IP for Netflix to option.
Fargo might be schlock, but it’s the kind of paperback schlock which pushes me to be a better writer. If more authors used Fargo as an example of good storytelling, the bookshelves would be better for it.
Fargo isn’t high art, and it’s not overly ambitious. It’s competent, tight storytelling creating a hard faced character who immediately feels rounded and real.
All this is accomplished without painfully obvious story mechanics or an author desperately attempting to make an IP for Netflix to option.
Fargo might be schlock, but it’s the kind of paperback schlock which pushes me to be a better writer. If more authors used Fargo as an example of good storytelling, the bookshelves would be better for it.
January 5, 2026
3.2
Really fun little read and a great way to start the year off for books. A little unrealistic with how obsessed the women are with Fargo but hey he still seems like quite the character. Either way I think I’ll try and find some of the other ones in this series because it was actually pretty enjoyable.
Really fun little read and a great way to start the year off for books. A little unrealistic with how obsessed the women are with Fargo but hey he still seems like quite the character. Either way I think I’ll try and find some of the other ones in this series because it was actually pretty enjoyable.
February 16, 2019
Very entertaining example of a Western/historical fiction. Disregard rubbish cover.
April 13, 2018
Damned fun read. Technically not a western but more than close enough for government work. Fargo is the epitome of the soldier of fortune at the turn of the 20th century (which was an era that had plenty of work for a mercenary).
Fargo is straight-up old school Men's Adventure tale. When heroes were more rugged than handsome, and irresitable to woman.
I was pleasantly surprised to find Fargo does have his flaws and can make real mistakes, which sets him apart from his compatriots of the 60's thru 80s time of men's fiction
I loved it and will read more Fargo tales as well as John Benteen novels or whatever pin name John Baas writes under.
Fargo is straight-up old school Men's Adventure tale. When heroes were more rugged than handsome, and irresitable to woman.
I was pleasantly surprised to find Fargo does have his flaws and can make real mistakes, which sets him apart from his compatriots of the 60's thru 80s time of men's fiction
I loved it and will read more Fargo tales as well as John Benteen novels or whatever pin name John Baas writes under.
April 21, 2016
Neal Fargo is a soldier of fortune from the turn of the 20th century. Think Lee Marvin from The Professionals and that's Fargo. The book was action packed, well written and a lot of fun to read. I'll definitely read more from this series.
If I have one quibble it's with the editing of the e-book. I'm sure they used some sort of scanning/character recognition technique to make the e-book but they should have hired a proof-reader to at least fix the capitalization mistakes, of which there were many.
If I have one quibble it's with the editing of the e-book. I'm sure they used some sort of scanning/character recognition technique to make the e-book but they should have hired a proof-reader to at least fix the capitalization mistakes, of which there were many.
January 9, 2022
A solid pulpy adventure western. I picked this up on the recommendation of Chuck Dixon as an author he liked, and its an enjoyable action romp without a lot more depth than that.
Fargo is a mercenary with some ethics who is hired to get silver out of Mexico around 1900 and faces multiple betrayals, turns of fortune, gorgeous women, and difficult situations he has to shoot, blast, or fight his way out of.
Fargo is a mercenary with some ethics who is hired to get silver out of Mexico around 1900 and faces multiple betrayals, turns of fortune, gorgeous women, and difficult situations he has to shoot, blast, or fight his way out of.
September 8, 2023
I really liked the opening and the description of this war-torn, weathered, beat up old protagonist, and I love the amount of detail that’s made up with his personal arsenal that works for him. I like the passing mention that his pistol is engraved by Roosevelt, I thought that was a neat touch. I also love the different descriptions of how his custom Fox sawed off shotgun tears through his enemies and “dissolves” them, that stuff was really fun and pretty grisly.
I wish there were more of the grand descriptions of exterior locations. There are a few times where the author paints a picture by describing the desert or the sunset in a canyon, which really built upon the world and added a lot of depth and realism.
I like how the tides turn often and the protagonist gets thrown into all sorts of different situations that he has to get his way out of, but everything did feel a bit unearned. There’s an air that he’ll get out of anything, I think he should’ve failed a bit more, and that it would’ve made his successes feel a little more grand. There’s a moment when he suffers a gunshot wound that’s just kind of ignored later on.
I also really loved the story generally! I like how many different places Fargo is able to go, and how no two moments are exactly the same, the plot always felt like it was moving well, and like it was always headed somewhere new.
I think the action could’ve been written a little tighter. As a fan of Cormac McCarthy, who is really sparing and leaves a lot of action up to interpretation, I wasn’t a fan of how the author described every movement in every gunfight. I did, however, like the description of some of the events of the story that needed more grim detail. For instance, in Delaney’s execution, when the author describes his head looking like he’s wearing a mask of flesh, that was really upsetting and gnarly! I wasn’t expecting that kind of intensity from something this pulpy.
My biggest criticism is definitely how awfully women are treated in this, which is why if I ever recommend this book to anyone, I will do so with a warning. Every woman’s hair, skin, and breast is described every time they’re brought up and they’re all treated like sex objects the entire book. It’s really upsetting to me that Fargo allows one of the women (although her actions are despicable) to be a sex slave for her enemy, and it’s presented as a just and vengeful act.
In summary, this book was well put together and full of action, adventure, and gun play. But I feel the characters were not fleshed out whatsoever (especially the women) and has some clunky, wordy action sequences that could’ve been a little more simply put.
I think if this author were a little more focused on the characters, and if the women had more complexity and nuance than just wanting to have sex with the protagonist, this would have been a lot more appealing for me. Things could have been a little less easy for the protagonist as well, as I feel that he’s not really grounded, which I know is kind of a silly critique to make for a pulp novel, but more grounded, relatable characters are just what’s attractive to me.
I wish there were more of the grand descriptions of exterior locations. There are a few times where the author paints a picture by describing the desert or the sunset in a canyon, which really built upon the world and added a lot of depth and realism.
I like how the tides turn often and the protagonist gets thrown into all sorts of different situations that he has to get his way out of, but everything did feel a bit unearned. There’s an air that he’ll get out of anything, I think he should’ve failed a bit more, and that it would’ve made his successes feel a little more grand. There’s a moment when he suffers a gunshot wound that’s just kind of ignored later on.
I also really loved the story generally! I like how many different places Fargo is able to go, and how no two moments are exactly the same, the plot always felt like it was moving well, and like it was always headed somewhere new.
I think the action could’ve been written a little tighter. As a fan of Cormac McCarthy, who is really sparing and leaves a lot of action up to interpretation, I wasn’t a fan of how the author described every movement in every gunfight. I did, however, like the description of some of the events of the story that needed more grim detail. For instance, in Delaney’s execution, when the author describes his head looking like he’s wearing a mask of flesh, that was really upsetting and gnarly! I wasn’t expecting that kind of intensity from something this pulpy.
My biggest criticism is definitely how awfully women are treated in this, which is why if I ever recommend this book to anyone, I will do so with a warning. Every woman’s hair, skin, and breast is described every time they’re brought up and they’re all treated like sex objects the entire book. It’s really upsetting to me that Fargo allows one of the women (although her actions are despicable) to be a sex slave for her enemy, and it’s presented as a just and vengeful act.
In summary, this book was well put together and full of action, adventure, and gun play. But I feel the characters were not fleshed out whatsoever (especially the women) and has some clunky, wordy action sequences that could’ve been a little more simply put.
I think if this author were a little more focused on the characters, and if the women had more complexity and nuance than just wanting to have sex with the protagonist, this would have been a lot more appealing for me. Things could have been a little less easy for the protagonist as well, as I feel that he’s not really grounded, which I know is kind of a silly critique to make for a pulp novel, but more grounded, relatable characters are just what’s attractive to me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 17, 2018
BETRAYAL IN THE SIERRA MADRES
Fargo just arrived in El Paso and headed for his hotel in the seedy parts of El Paso. After arriving and checking his trunk full of tools of his trade, he leaves to find a place to eat and relax. While eating breakfast, a man appears and asked could he sit down? No problem, so the man sits down, his name was Meredith and he wanted to hire Fargo to help him get approximately three hundred thousand dollars worth of silver out of Mexico. At this particular time the Mexican government is in deep turmoil, revolutions happening lots of fighting lots of upheavals.
It doesn't pay to lie to Fargo and once he arrives the silver mine, he finds out the true story, he suspected there was something hinky, but couldn't quite put his finger on it. Well this guy Meredith doubled crossed Fargo, and was really in with Hernandez another revolutionary general, who wanted the silver to buy more guns for his army of revolutionist against Villa.
Loads of action at every turn of the pages, lots of local dialogue and an introduction to the Tarahumaras, an indigenous tribe of Indians whose home was the Sierra Madres, per Fargo were mistreated, but the men of the tribe are known for their running endurance, up and down the mountains and hills building their stamina.
So Fargo is upset to say the least at the turn of events he's witnessing...not good.
Like all of Fargo's adventures, add this to your collection and you won't be disappointed..
Fargo just arrived in El Paso and headed for his hotel in the seedy parts of El Paso. After arriving and checking his trunk full of tools of his trade, he leaves to find a place to eat and relax. While eating breakfast, a man appears and asked could he sit down? No problem, so the man sits down, his name was Meredith and he wanted to hire Fargo to help him get approximately three hundred thousand dollars worth of silver out of Mexico. At this particular time the Mexican government is in deep turmoil, revolutions happening lots of fighting lots of upheavals.
It doesn't pay to lie to Fargo and once he arrives the silver mine, he finds out the true story, he suspected there was something hinky, but couldn't quite put his finger on it. Well this guy Meredith doubled crossed Fargo, and was really in with Hernandez another revolutionary general, who wanted the silver to buy more guns for his army of revolutionist against Villa.
Loads of action at every turn of the pages, lots of local dialogue and an introduction to the Tarahumaras, an indigenous tribe of Indians whose home was the Sierra Madres, per Fargo were mistreated, but the men of the tribe are known for their running endurance, up and down the mountains and hills building their stamina.
So Fargo is upset to say the least at the turn of events he's witnessing...not good.
Like all of Fargo's adventures, add this to your collection and you won't be disappointed..
July 28, 2023
I really enjoyed this and it was pretty thrilling from beginning to end. Mr. Benteen (Ben Haas) was clearly skilled at cramming a bunch of adventure - in this case over a large swath of Mexico - into a relatively short story while never getting too bogged down into details that would just drag it out. My only issue was there were a few horse deaths and a latina being mistreated that were a little difficult to stomach but the ending was great enough to make up for it. I also think my issues were pretty typical of the more hard edged styles emerging during the desensitised Vietnam War era. Overall, this was a lot of fun, I highly recommend it, and I look forward to reading more Fargo and Sundance stories from this author.
September 15, 2020
A no-nonsense Western adventure novel. Wholly unreconstructed. Full of bone-crunching violence and titillating sex scenes. Every woman is described by her looks, with particularly focus on breast size. However, I cannot say I wasn't entertained. I like Western films and this is like a solid Spaghetti Western, with little regard for the lyricism of the old West, rather this is like a punch to the face. It reminded me of Mickey Spillane, and I say that as a compliment. I will read more of these, but obviously I wouldn't recommend them to the easily offended, or those with literary tastes. Low-brow trash which I raced through.
March 1, 2017
I used to read these books back in the late 70's-early 80's and I enjoyed them a lot. I had not read this first one of the series before, and it was quite good. Fargo, gunman and ex-soldier for hire, takes on a job to sneak out $250,000 in raw silver from a mine deep in revolution-torn Mexico circa 1914 or thereabouts. Much gunfire and violent mayhem ensues, and it all comes to an explosive, bullet-riddled battle at the climax. Old school he-man adventure; sensitive politically-correct readers need not apply. I loved it!
May 14, 2020
A solid western, everthing you want in a short action western novel. The main character Fargo is a resourceful care free man for hire who isn't a superman character either, a nice balance. Action is pretty constant and doesn't make your roll your eyes at stuff that is impossible as much as some do.
Highly recommended for western fans, probably not one to hand to someone who isn't in to westerns, it's unapologetic western no crossing genres here.
Highly recommended for western fans, probably not one to hand to someone who isn't in to westerns, it's unapologetic western no crossing genres here.
June 10, 2021
Fargo/Sundance
Mr.Benteen, has & was a favorite since i was a young man! I'm rereading Fargo and have also ordered Sundance, another character of Benteen. Well written and intriguing to read!
Mr.Benteen, has & was a favorite since i was a young man! I'm rereading Fargo and have also ordered Sundance, another character of Benteen. Well written and intriguing to read!
May 22, 2017
Great book, this was a lot of fun to read!
March 8, 2020
I read this book on a recommendation of the Six Gun Justice podcast. It is certainly not a western and the story sucked. I can't believe the podcast would even mention such a trashy series.
June 6, 2022
Awesome action pact book. Never slowed down.
March 17, 2023
A good men's adventure novel that has a protagonist that is likeable, but has many faults. I liked the historical tie-in to pre WWI Texas border and Northern Mexico. A good vacation trip read.
September 5, 2023
>Tough man.
Never heard of Fargo till two days ago. The action was non-stop. Good story and action clear as any movie, clearer than some. Oh yes I'm A fan.
Never heard of Fargo till two days ago. The action was non-stop. Good story and action clear as any movie, clearer than some. Oh yes I'm A fan.
November 23, 2025
Fargo book 1
Ruthless. Fast action, bold decisions, enjoyed reading it. Good and clear description. More or less realistic, accurate to history and equipment.
Ruthless. Fast action, bold decisions, enjoyed reading it. Good and clear description. More or less realistic, accurate to history and equipment.
July 18, 2014
I read this one as a kid and when some folks and family members saw what I was reading as a young teenager they became concerned. Not over the story or the violence, but the heavy emphasis on the sexual element. This was one of the first of an emerging genre of men's fiction with lots of extreme violence and sexual encounters. It is pretty tame by comparison with some of today's fiction-- certainly not overly explicit, but, I think, a bit more than a 13-14 year old should have been reading.
There is a strong story here and it stacks up well with modern men's adventure stuff like Cussler's adventure series.. it is solid action and we begin to respect a character like Neal Fargo, who becomes the hero in a series of adventures based after the turn of the 20th century. This series tends to lean more towards adventure, though they retain a certain western element.
The author spends little time developing the character. We don't learn much about how he became a soldier of fortune, but more about where he had actually served.
Of course, there are places where the hero performs those impossible escapes, etc. That's one of this thing that causes me to classify this as pulpy stuff.
The Kindle edition is full of formatting errors and words that jumble together with missing spaces. Probably at least fifty-sixty of these-- example: instead of he was "hewas" and that was annoying as I'm trying to get used to reading stuff on my IPAD.
However, the introduction to the book was worth the minor amount of money I put into this title. It described the writing career of the author, who wrote under a number of psuedonyms as well as his own name. It told of his contributions to the genre and it was quite interesting.
There is a strong story here and it stacks up well with modern men's adventure stuff like Cussler's adventure series.. it is solid action and we begin to respect a character like Neal Fargo, who becomes the hero in a series of adventures based after the turn of the 20th century. This series tends to lean more towards adventure, though they retain a certain western element.
The author spends little time developing the character. We don't learn much about how he became a soldier of fortune, but more about where he had actually served.
Of course, there are places where the hero performs those impossible escapes, etc. That's one of this thing that causes me to classify this as pulpy stuff.
The Kindle edition is full of formatting errors and words that jumble together with missing spaces. Probably at least fifty-sixty of these-- example: instead of he was "hewas" and that was annoying as I'm trying to get used to reading stuff on my IPAD.
However, the introduction to the book was worth the minor amount of money I put into this title. It described the writing career of the author, who wrote under a number of psuedonyms as well as his own name. It told of his contributions to the genre and it was quite interesting.
July 16, 2016
Weathered veteran, expert gunman, cold to danger. Neal Fargo is hired to retrieve $250,000 worth of silver from the Sierra Madre mountains in a Mexico torn by Villa's revolution and infested with brutal, well-armed bandits.
This book is the first in John Benteen's FARGO series, and is an engaging gritty adventure.
This book is the first in John Benteen's FARGO series, and is an engaging gritty adventure.
September 11, 2012
this series is from my teenage years, my fave western series of all time. Neil Fargo the ambidexterous soldier of fortune,him off the wolfs grin and the white teeth.
A tough hombre who was a one man arsenal! Great stuff.
A tough hombre who was a one man arsenal! Great stuff.
February 25, 2014
Macho, testosterone fueled dime novel
I read Fargo originally while I was in the Navy, along with another hard hitting series, Edge. Love these resurrected politically incorrect violent tales.
I read Fargo originally while I was in the Navy, along with another hard hitting series, Edge. Love these resurrected politically incorrect violent tales.
November 11, 2008
First book in the Fargo adventure series
September 3, 2013
A turn of the century western action/adventure story.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews