Takedown: Taming John Wesley Hardin

by Dale Chase

Few Texans believe the notorious gunman John Wesley Hardin, who has killed more than thirty men over a ten-year period, will ever be captured, but on a fall day in 1878 he enters the Huntsville prison to serve a 25-year sentence for murder. Witnessing the arrival is convict Garland Quick who, though he's sworn to never again love a desperado, is immediately taken with the handsome 25-year old killer. When the two men are thrown together at work in the wheelwright shop, a relationship begins and Gar is drawn into Hardin's escape attempt, only to pay a price for its failure. Complicating things is lifer Jim Scanlon, Gar's cellmate and sexual partner, who, unlike most others, does not look kindly on the charismatic Hardin. As years pass, feelings deepen, yet Gar faces an unexpected challenge when Hardin takes up law study and lobbies for a pardon he just might get.

Genres: M M Romance

300 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2013

About the author

Dale Chase has been writing gay male erotica for sixteen years with over 150 stories published in magazines and anthologies, including translation into Italian and German. Her second novel "TAKEDOWN: Taming John Wesley Hardin" will be published by Lethe Press in November 2013. Her first novel "WYATT: Doc Holliday"s Account of an Intimate Friendship" was published in 2012. Two e-collections followed in 2013: "Crack Shot: Western Erotica: and "A Private Business: Victorian Erotica," all from Bold Strokes Books. Dale's novellas "Lonely as God" and "The Man I Know" have recently been published by Wilde City Press. Dale continues to write old western erotica.

Reviews

[PaperMoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little nervous trying out this new author (to me) ... she's touted as having written a lot of male erotica and I wasn't sure how that would influence this western historical work.

First off - there's definitely gay sex - consensual for the most part (and non-consensual in a couple of instances) - the author writes gay erotica well and in a masculine rough and hard sense given the setting. Readers who are a little jaded with M-M sex can always skip the passages (I did some).

This book works for me as a fictionalised historical. Notorious Texan badass legendary outlaw figure John Wesley Hardin (who's wanted for a lot of manslaughter) is introduced by the author as a MC when he get's incarcerated to serve hos sentence of 25 years at Huntsville Prison. There he meets Garland Quick who is of similar age and also serving 25 years for killing one man in a robbery gone-wrong.

What follows is a steady expose of how two men drawn from different walks of life come together to form a relationship of sorts - one gay and one straight. There's nothing insta about the friendship and bond that gets built between Wes and Garland. The best thing about this book is how easily I was drawn into the closed-world and regimented prison life where the plot is entirely set. From abusive and sadistic prison guards and management, predatory life-term killers, young and fragile youths, lecherous physicians, double-crossing, horny and opportunistic wardens and inmates ... the detail and characters sprang to life from the page and I became quite immersed in the oft-times brutal, claustrophobic and bleak world of Huntsville Prison of the last two decades of the nineteeth century.

Periods of relative calm involving work in prison industries and self-improvement with studies are alternated with the excitement of prison breakouts, traumas of retributive punishment and of course the excitement of man-on-man sex taken wherever possible. The phenomenon of situational homosexual sex is rather well done - Hardin is particularly conflicted with this given his religious background as well as his loyalty of wife and children outside. And the author gives a poignant voice to Garland as to what it means to fall for a straight man who's hellbent of securing his freedom back to his life as it was before.

Readers wanting a HEA ending should be forewarned that the ending is predictable insofar as the plot closely follows Hardin's fate in real life; a realistic but bittersweet tale. Aside from the sex (and I guess incarcerated men do engage in sexual practices to work out their angst and frustrations and anger) - I thought this an enlightening and engaging historical three and half star read. But I can accept that this will not be everyone's 'cup of tea'.

[Jerry L. Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Western writer Dale chase has been queering legends of the Old West since her first full-length novel, Wyatt: Doc Holliday’s Account of an Intimate Friendship for Bold Strokes Books. For her second, she turns to the less well-known gunfighter John Wesley Hardin and his stay at the Huntsville Prison in Texas. Chase’s Western settings are perfect, with a fine sense of place that gives just enough detail but doesn’t belabor the point. She paints the picture, puts the characters in their places, then gets the hell out of the way as they play their parts. Her material is never overwritten or overwrought, which is most welcome in erotica. So if you’re feeling the chill of winter, you should get a copy of this and bask in the hot, dry dust. And the sweaty sex. You’ll never want to leave your cell.