The Man From Boot Hill

The Man from Boot Hill #1

by Marcus Galloway

The first book in the Boot Hill series, a hybrid of Unforgiven and Six Feet Under . Nick Graves is a Mourner. His profession is to arrange funerals and organize gatherings for wakes as well as hangings, supplementing his meagre income by making coffins. He has come to this job, a profession he learned from his father, after years making his living with a fast draw and a cool nerve. Now he wants to forget his past, forget the destruction he has caused by assuming a simple life and a quiet vocation. But the job he takes in new town also includes some old problems. The town is stocked full of corrupt men, men who will make it very difficult for Nick to continue the family trade, men who will force him to return to his old profession, when he created corpses instead of cared for them.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 2004

Reviews

[Michael Morrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goodreads doesn't have the right cover for the edition I read. It's the Large Type, from Thorndike Press.
It's another ugly book, with no likeable characters, not even the protagonist, who begins the story seeming to want out of his life of crime. Of course, no matter how and what he tries, something or someone pops up to deter him.
There is a lot of violence and a plot line that just keeps heading toward misery and more violence.
Frankly I was torn between 1 and 2 stars.
And I'm always curious why authors -- and often movie producers -- think such unhappiness, such bitterness, such a depressing story warrants completing a book -- or movie.
I guess it's true that there is no disputing taste.

[Chris Duggan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent western. If I find the remainder of the series I’ll read it but I won’t go out of my way to order them.

[Tyler Cole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written but a little too bloody for my taste.