Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Edge #2

Ten Grand

Rate this book
Book by Geroge G. Gillman

137 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

45 people are currently reading
267 people want to read

About the author

George G. Gilman

297 books75 followers
A pseudonym used by Terry Harknett.

Edge (61 books as George G. Gilman)
Adam Steele (49 books as George G. Gilman)
Edge Meets Adam Steele (3 books as George G. Gilman)
The Undertaker (6 books as George G. Gilman)

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
104 (31%)
4 stars
114 (34%)
3 stars
89 (26%)
2 stars
26 (7%)
1 star
2 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
Profile Image for Dave Edmunds.
339 reviews252 followers
July 23, 2023


"Sometimes it's better to know how to live than how to kill."

3.75🌟's

Initial Thoughts

After reading George G. Gilman's fantastic opening book in his Edge series (titled The Loner) last month, I'm back for some more of the most violent western action known to man. It's cheap, pulpy entertainment. Certainly not high end literature. But you know what? Sometimes you want fine dining and other times you just want a dirty, greasy burger. And Edge is without doubt the literary equivalent of that.

Gilman is one of the pseudonyms for author Terry Harnett. A guy who hails from Piccadilly, England, and confessed he'd never even been to the United States when he wrote these books. In fact he confessed in an interview:

"I had never read a western novel when I did my first and I consider that fact was a cornerstone to the success of George G Gilman."

Thing you should know about this series is that the main character, Edge, is in no way, shape or form a hero. In fact he's much more a villain who will lie, cheat and steal to get what he wants. But much like Eddie Guerrero in the wrestling, his fantastic sense of humour makes him such an entertaining character and you can't help but like him. At least I can't! Is there something wrong with me?

Anyway, after the first novel in which Edge got some bloody revenge for the murder of his brother, he's now back in the sequel...Ten Grand. Originally published in 1971 this book is amazingly older than me. But as you'll find out, it was quite pioneering in featuring morally grey characters who could still be engaging to the reader.

"High overhead the buzzards made a final circuit and wheeled away, screeching their frustrating rage.

"Stick with me fellers," he said softly after the departing scavengers. "I'm as hungry for blood as you are."


The Story

This one picks up exactly where the last book finished, with Josiah Hedges (Edge) being made the temporary Sheriff of Peaceville. The town where he exacted revenge on those who murdered his younger brother and in doing so endeared himself to the locals who were impressed with his propensity for cold-hearted violence. But it isn't long before Edge lands himself in hot water, when a Mexican bandit, who goes by the name of El Matador, ransacks the small town, steals his cash and takes him hostage. That's the bandit's first mistake and the second is leaving Edge for dead without actually finishing the job.

Edge quickly sets out to exact revenge and more importantly get his money back. But when he arrives at the second town to be hit by El Matador's crew and finds one remaining survivor, an old man who used to be a bandit himself, he learns of a burried stash of cash totalling ten thousand dollars. If it's one thing our hero likes it's the money that folds and thus begins a journey that see's him on a crash course with the bandits he's after. Edge figures he might as well kill two birds with one stone, with one of those birds being an unhinged psychopath with a bloodthirsty gang and a blunderbuss.



Final Thoughts

These Edge books are amongst the most violent westerns I have ever read. Up there with Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and S. Craig Zahler's Wraiths of the Broken Land. If you're looking for the romantic stuff popularised by Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour then this is definitely not for you. But if you enjoy gratuitous violence and cheesy one-liners then dive right in. I love the stuff and it's perfect escapism between those heavier reads. Pure unadulterated fun.

With a much more straightforward story, that lacked the same emotional impact of the first book, this wasn't quite as good. But I had a rip-roaring time nonetheless. Exactly what I needed. I've heard the next book, Apache Death, is even better. So I'm literally chomping at the bit for that. Hope you can join me when I pick that up sooner rather than later.

Thanks for reading and...cheers!
Profile Image for Still.
642 reviews118 followers
August 23, 2018
Second entry in the "Edge" series, a series advertised as "The Most Violent Westerns In Print".
This entry at least lives up to that claim.
In spades.
Sort of a Conan the Barbarian of the Wild West.
Inspired by Spaghetti Westerns, it consists of senseless violence and a slender plot.
Would have benefited from a Morricone soundtrack.

Only thing that bothered me was his mistreatment of a female character who lasts all of 15-20 pages before he murders her.
The rest of his victims are all bounty hunters, territorial marshals, and Mexican banditos and there are a lot of each. Oh yeah -and a couple of Mexican prostitutes near the end.

Action-packed page-turner.
I am too ashamed to give this 4 stars but I really enjoyed this slim 137 page paperback original.
Profile Image for oddo.
83 reviews41 followers
May 10, 2021
Edge, legendary dickhead and wanted outlaw, returns in this second volume that finds him tracking a group of sadistic banditos South across the border to Mexico to reclaim a large sum of money that was stolen from him. Brutal stuff on display including massacres, violent rape, torture via bull, and many exploding faces. More of a "comedic" slant on this one than the first, as Edge cracks dry one-liners near the end of most chapters. Despite the cruelty, so very enjoyable.
Profile Image for Austin Smith.
722 reviews66 followers
December 27, 2025
3.5⭐

2 books in and I'm enjoying the hell out of these splatter westerns. Ultra violent, dark, bleak, but tinged with humor and witty dialogue to make it fun. I think I might like this sequel a bit more than the first one and this is a series I'll definitely be continuing.
Profile Image for Benjamin Thomas.
2,003 reviews372 followers
July 5, 2021
The former Civil War Captain and temporary sheriff of Peaceville in southern Arizona Territory is now known simply as “Edge” and this is his second adventure in this long-running series.

Robbed of a large sum of money (the titular ten grand) by a band of Mexican banditos, Edge has only two things on his mind: recovery of his stolen money and revenge against the bandito leader, a short-statured man known as El Matador. Nothing will stand in Edge’s way. Not any sense of duty to his sheriff’s badge (which he tosses away shortly after the robbery); not the attentions of women who cross his path, and certainly not the violent actions of the banditos themselves.

The author behind the George G. Gilman moniker is once again the prolific Terry Harknett, arguably the most successful of the “Piccadilly Cowboys”, a handful of British authors in the 1970's and 80's who themselves never set foot in America. The “edginess” of the Edge character really ramps up in this second volume, making it abundantly clear that he has absolutely no qualms about committing violent acts, has no desire to lead an honorable life in any way shape or form. He will beat a woman as easily as bed her and shoot a man in the back if that gives him an advantage. He leaves a trail of dead bodies behind him without a second thought. But the character also demonstrates a sense of guile and cleverness when he finds himself in precarious situations, along with a trace of humor. Indeed, most chapters end with a snide one-liner to carry us forward to the next chapter.

Obviously, these books are not for everybody. They really live up to their claim of being the most violent westerns in print, at least as far as I’ve ever experienced. For me, they belong in the “guilty pleasure” category and I find myself admitting to having a good time reading them.
Profile Image for Oliver Clarke.
Author 99 books2,062 followers
August 8, 2021
Check out more crime, thriller and pulp reviews on CriminOlly.Wordpress.com

I think Edge, the vicious half Mexican half Scandinavian outlaw hero of ‘Ten Thousand Dollars, American’ might be even more of a dislikable son of a bitch in this book than he was in his debut ‘The Loner’. It’s no surprise he fights alone, when he treats everyone he comes across with such utter contempt.
In this second slim volume in the series, Edge chases a gang of Mexican bandits led by a 5 foot tall psychopath nicknamed El Matador. They’ve stolen his life savings, and his pursuit of them also leads him to learn of a hidden treasure worth, you guessed it, ten thousand dollars, American.
In their time, the books were advertised as the most violent westerns in print and it’s not hard to see why. The action comes thick and fast and is unremittingly brutal. The bandit gang are more ruthless and sadistic than the hero, but it’s a matter of degrees really. In many tales Edge would be the villain of the piece. Here he is the protagonist and his ruthlessness makes him a delight to read.
The secondary characters in the book can be divided into three camps: people Edge actively wants to kill (and therefore does), people he doesn’t care about (who he often kills anyway) and people who fall victim to the people Edge actively wants to kill. Pretty much every named character apart from Edge ends up dead, and when it isn’t by his hand it’s generally only because someone else got there first.
Aside from the violence, there’s a smattering of humour, which is often just Edge making Bond style quips when he kills someone. As you’d expect from a 70s pulp, there’s also sex, with Edge’s masculine hardness proving irresistible to the women he meets. It all adds up to a fantastically enjoyable potboiler.
Profile Image for Mike.
831 reviews13 followers
June 1, 2024
2nd in the 70's series-for-men about the former Civil war Captain surviving in the violent West.
Profile Image for Phillip.
280 reviews6 followers
March 12, 2021
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.
Profile Image for Chris Haynes.
235 reviews6 followers
September 20, 2016
Let me get this out of the way first in the hope the publisher will see it and correct it!! The Kindle version of this book has a TON of editing errors. Misspelled words, punctuation placed in the wrong places, the wrong words in many places. It looks like they put the paperback through a OCR machine which misinterpreted a lot of things, spit out a digital copy and no one bothered to proof read it. If you need someone to proofread the digital copies, let me know and I would love to help you.

As for the story: I really liked it. I thought the characters were interesting and the story was fast paced and entertaining. The Edge books are truly the most violent western series I have ever read. There is a warning at the beginning of the book that states: "WARNING! This Story is not for the Faint-hearted reader.". That is not an idle boast. Edge murders people that get in his way, he beats up women, he lies, cheats and steals. Edge is a vicious sociopath who truly does not care about another living soul. The books are well written and sometimes the violence and the utter uncaring nature of Edge is very cathartic, sort of like the Purge series of movies.
Profile Image for Frankie Roxx.
16 reviews9 followers
May 4, 2015
Ten Grand was actually the first Edge novel I'd read as I purchased it, along with a handful of other Edge books, on a whim while perusing a local used bookstore. A long time fan of the Spaghetti Western film genre, as well as the amoral comic book Western bounty hunter Jonah Hex, I figured after a quick scan of the back covers of the books I'd snatched up that this might well be a series I'd enjoy. With the store lacking the first book in the series, The Loner (though I picked that up shortly after), I started my delving into the violent and callously cold world of Josiah “Edge” Hedges with Ten Grand. Now here's a book I have mixed feelings on and here's why. The writing wasn't bad by any means and George G. Gilman (A pseudonym used by Terry Harknett ) paints a descriptive and violent old West through his words. The series definitely lives up to it's claims of being “the most violent westerns in print” or at least from my experience it is (not counting, of course, comic books). And that I was more than fine with because, and I have no shame in admitting this, I'm a man that enjoys a good violent shoot 'em up type story. It keeps things interesting and , far too often, a lot of Western books just feel too dry and slow paced. Rest assured that's never the case with the Edge series.

That being said something about Ten Grand just didn't sit quite right with me. As I mentioned above it wasn't the writing and I can't quite say what it was exactly but for whatever the reason this is one of my least favorite of the Edge novels and I've read the majority of them. That's not to say it's a bad book by any means there's just, in my opinion, better. Be that as it may though it still holds a soft spot in my heart if for no other reason than it was my introduction to the Edge series.
988 reviews28 followers
May 10, 2022
A group of 20 Mexican bandits lead by the sadistic, sick fuck El Matador comes to Peaceville the place where Edge is chilling as sheriff taking his three meals and not doing much. The bandits will blow out the bank, innocent folk will take bullets with one falling from a 2nd storey building, her face blown away and body trampled by the horses hooves now just crumbled bones and a well of blood and another has in crown chopped off like an apple. They will steal Edge's money and he will be all mightily pissed. He will decide to chase these free killing and raping bandits to retrieve his money. A man who shots Edge's horse will have both his hands shot off, he will push an innocent women off a cliff, her bones breaking and crunching end over end. Edge does not give a fuck about anybody. He is a complete nasty selfish killer in a world where money rules, life is cheap and everybody wants to deceive and steal everything. His Spanish ability will help him and as always Edge will get his man in the end. And a raging bull will rip out the entrails of an unlucky man.
Profile Image for Josh Hitch.
1,291 reviews17 followers
August 27, 2022
Enjoyed this one, I think its even more brutal then the first. It follows right after the first one, Edge was made lawman of the town he was in. Was easy work til a large bandit force of more then 20 men came and robbed the bank. They took him hostage and stole his nest egg. However they screwed up and didn't make sure he was dead. So as soon as he came too he went back to town to get his gear to go after them because of his money and mostly they just made him mad.

Highly recommend, Edge is not a man you really root for. At best you may like him more then the big villain of the books but barely. He really only operates as one who takes what he wants and kills pretty much for any reason. However the books move fast and are quick reads that are never dull.
Profile Image for Michael Wiggins.
326 reviews4 followers
April 14, 2023
Yes, these are violent, as promised on the cover. But the man just isn't likable; he is mean for little reason or purpose. He hits or even kills women for the hell of it. He cut a rattlesnake to pieces that had already passed him by. He's just a vicious ex-Yankee soldier. Figures, really. I have one more of these on hand to read, and I might check it out to see if Edge ever becomes less one-dimensional.
106 reviews
May 2, 2023
Not bad

Not a bad read but not a great one it's basically the same as book one its basically someone wrongs Edge who promptly tracks them down and grusomley kills them all and anyone else who gets in his way if your looking for in depth challenging western then this is not the book for you but if you've got an hour to spare and you can take all the spelling mistakes and you like a no holds barred brutal fast paced western then you might enjoy this.
Profile Image for A1Cvenom.
165 reviews2 followers
November 20, 2023
The Edge novels are some of the most readable western I’ve ever read. Expect nothing but brutality and violence and you won’t be disappointed. Edge is the embodiment of the American outlaw with at least some type of conscious that keeps him from being totally evil. He goes toe to toe with Mexican bandits in search of a cache of 10 grand leaving many bodies in his wake. His actions are always satisfying and unpredictable. Highly recommend if you want a quick dark western.
Profile Image for Shaun Bannon.
2 reviews
August 25, 2020
I read oh I don't know how many Edge books in the 70's, loved the excitement of them, so now in the 2020's I thought I'd load them one by one onto my kindle, Yes I still enjoy them but dear me they've never been proof read as the spelling errors are countless, nearly every page has them and why they can't put a "L" and instead use a 1 is beyond me
Profile Image for Jordan Anderson.
1,749 reviews46 followers
June 30, 2021
Another great addition to the Edge series.

Much like the Splatter Western series that came much later, Gilman’s violent take on the western is a breath of fresh air in a genre that usually revolves around cowboys falling in love with Indians.

I’m usually not a western fan but if more were like Edge, well I’d be a rabid reader.
Profile Image for Joel Swokowski.
340 reviews
May 24, 2022
Decent. I liked the first one (origin story!) better but i'll continue with this series for a bit. These books start with a "Warning! This Story is not for the Faint-hearted reader."... and this one definitely lived up to that warning!
71 reviews
June 30, 2024
I first read some of the books in this series almost fifty years ago. They seemed quite explicit and raw back then and they still have the ability to shock today. But if you prefer Django Unchained to High Noon then you will enjoy these books. Lots of action, great characters and plenty of humor.
Profile Image for Phil.
483 reviews2 followers
July 11, 2024
Ultra violent, over the top sexisms and ridiculous dialogue are the pervasive elements of this book. That said, it was fun. Definitely spaghetti western style of book. Don’t read this story looking for a hero, you won’t find one here.
Profile Image for David  &  Lee Muhl.
5 reviews
January 7, 2019
Cowboys and indians!

This is a pick up and put down cowboy story. Part of a series which you really need to read in order. Nothing brilliant but ok.
Profile Image for Dan Blackley.
1,221 reviews9 followers
June 8, 2020
This is a good story. Edge finds himself pursuing a Ten Grand prize that is somewhere in Mexico. He goes after it and all hell breaks loose.
287 reviews
June 30, 2023
Imagine Halloween’s Michael Myers as a cowboy with speaking lines.
1,497 reviews4 followers
January 29, 2025
Another good book in this series. I felt the first was a little better but again, another good western read.
Profile Image for Trevor.
220 reviews9 followers
February 12, 2025
Uglier and less focused than its predecessor. It’s a quick read, and still somewhat enjoyable as just pure exploitation Western garbage
Profile Image for Egghead.
2,737 reviews
August 13, 2025
not spaghetti west
but tons of red sauce gets spilled
ends on a bond joke
Profile Image for Andy Holmes.
39 reviews
January 13, 2023
Knocks two women about in the first 30 pages for no reason, they thank him for it. Meh, I'm out.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.