Avengers

Outlaws #4

by Chet Cunningham

There comes a time when you've got to stand up and face them, no matter the odds, no matter the outcome! Chet Cunningham, America's premiere western writer, brings you another action adventure western, No. 4 in the Outlaw series.

Genres: Westerns

139 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

aka Jess Cody, Cathy Cunningham, Lionel Derrick (with Mark Roberts 2), Keith Douglass (with William H Keith), J.D. Bondie, Chad Calhoun, G.A. Carrington, Kit Dalton, Dirk Fletcher, Don Pendleton

Since his first novel was published in 1968 Chet Cunningham has written and had published nearly 300 works of fiction and 15 non fiction books. He is equally adept on horseback, in the techno-thriller arena, or recounting military history. His output includes 125 westerns and 50 men's action/adventure novels.

Reviews

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

The description has nothing to do with this book. The Willy Boy gang heads to Denver to rob the bank that the professor failed to rob years ago.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another series by Chet Cunningham (The Penetrator, The Specialists) not to be confused with the pulp hero of the same name, whose adventures were also reprinted by Warner Books.

Matt Hawke is a DEA agent whose wife is tortured and killed by drug runners he was investigating. Hawke then goes on the rampage taking down the drug dealers in ways that the DEA won’t allow.

There is a great deal to like about this book and the series that followed. Hawke is fallible and gets injured. He is aided by a teenaged prostitute Brandy, who is one of Hawke’s confidential informants. Brandy is a great character who manages subvert some of the clichés about teenaged prostitutes and wished she got used more in the later books in the series.

Cunningham is based in San Diego and his use of the location is excellent in this book. Cunningham also manages to slip a few references to some of his fellow writers.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well there is not listing for The Avenger, book one of The Avenger series, and the description here is actually for The Avenger so just using this listing for it. The Avenger is a nice Executioner clone, and book one is a good start. It details the death of Hawke's wife which pushes the DEA agent to go after the drug ring responsible, all the way to the top man.

Highly recommended, well written with a good lead and his teenage former hooker helper is a nicely done character too. Plenty of action and flows well.

[Éric Kasprak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Avengers is my fourth adventures with The Outlaws and this time the focus is on the Professor and his quest for revenge against one Colorado bank. The story is fun, well told, full of action and a surprisingly good deal of character building scenes. Those scenes are really the strongest part of the series, the characters created by Chet Cunningham are interesting and very likable. I, for one, feel like I know these people and that I'm part of their group. Avengers (and The Outlaws series in general) offer straightforward storytelling with competent writing and great characters. I would like more elaborate writing style, but there is no denying that Chet Cunningham has created a great group of characters that are fun to follow.

[Wally Tomlinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the book about a former DEA agent who went on to avenge his wife's death at the hands of a drug kingpin in California and northern Mexico. Once I started reading this book it was hard to put down with a lot of action and suspense in it plus it is the first book of the series by Chet Cunningham.

[Larry Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decisions to be made.

How do you destroy the father of the woman you love.
One day and article at a time. Great story of payback.