I just didn’t like this second installment in the “Edge” western series. The first novel in the series, “The Loner,” was fresh and original insofar as that’s possible with the western genre. Edge, the protagonist of the story, isn’t a good guy. He’s not a bad guy. He’s just a selfish, violent, and oddly clueless former Civil War soldier who—after his brother is violently murdered—seeks revenge on his brother’s killers, and, in this novel, attempts to recover $2000 stolen from him by El Matador, a Mexican bandit.
First, Edge survives scenarios that far extend the boundaries of verisimilitude in literature—even a western, where the good guy never dies and always wins the day. Regardless the impossible situation, Edge survives, and usually he’s the only one to do so. His survival isn’t so much a result of his quick thinking or even his acumen as a soldier and gunman, but rather just plain old dumb luck, and I just don’t like it, because I don’t buy it.
Second, unlike “The Loner,” “Ten Grand” is gratuitously violent, sadistic, and overall contains scenes in bad taste. Edge kills just about everyone he encounters, whether good or bad, and those he doesn’t personally kill, he certainly doesn’t protect, and often leaves to die. Now, yes, Edge does have a heart. He’s not a villain. He doesn’t main, kill, rape or pillage like a villain. However, though he may not engage in these activities, he isn’t necessarily driven to do anything about them when he sees them occurring, in front of his eyes. He leaves people alone, and he wants others to leave him alone. I found a few of his “murders” unexpected and unnecessary. For example, he encounters some bandits while hunting down the other bandits, in a steep canyon. He quickly dispatches two of the moronic bandits, but the third—a woman—gets the drop on him. For a former soldier, Edge is often entirely clueless and unaware of his surroundings. Repeatedly people sneak up on him and his first response is “dang...I wouldn’t normally let anyone sneak up on me like that,” yet it happens time and time again to the point of getting ridiculous. Anyhow, he allows the woman to hang around him for a day or two and cook him meals, but when a local posse corner him on the canyon wall, he has absolutely no compunction about pushing this woman off the cliff to her death, to distract those below. I mean...seriously? I get that he’s not Sir Lancelot, but this gratuitous violence and even evil isn’t justified and is certainly not necessary.
Finally, the payoff really isn’t terribly satisfying here. Since this series continues, of course Edge survives one insane encounter after another, so that’s nothing new, but the villain, El Matador, doesn’t get nearly what he deserves, and a story built on revenge had better pay off in a gratifying way, and this just doesn’t. The author has already displayed countless times previously that he can write effective action and revenge scenes. Why he doesn’t do so in this novel is beyond me. I am not entirely sure I’ll continue with this series. The novelty of the bad good guy is wearing off, and I honestly think i just plain prefer the standard western hero.