.45-Caliber Deathtrap

.45-Caliber #4

by Peter Brandvold

After Cuno Massey's business partner is murdered by a gang of outlaws, he takes to the trail to find the killers. But Cuno's mission of vengeance becomes a rescue mission when he learns that the outlaws have kidnapped a young Chinese woman.

Genres: Westerns

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 6, 2007

About the author

Peter Brandvold has written well over one hundred action westerns under his own name and his pseudonym, Frank Leslie. Born and raised in North Dakota, he has lived all over the West. He currently lives in western Minnesota with his dog. Follow him at Amazon and here peterbrandvold.blogspot.comand here: facebook.com/peter.brandvold.

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

WARNING !!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A SPOILER !!!

Finally! A western written by someone who grew up in the West, knows Western history, did a bunch of good research or all of the aforementioned.

Cuno (who would name a boy Cuno - probably related to the guy who named his son Sue) Massey hasn't had an easy life. His step-mother and his father are killed by two tough pistolers, he tracks them down and kills them. His father was a freight hauler, which is the only career choice available, and has a run in with a man who acts as if he is a god (definitly lower case g).

Cuno cleans his clock and meets a half-breed Indian girl, July Summer, falls in love and marries. He supports his new family, and as in the days of old, she soon finds herself pregnant. She and his baby are murdered by a man who has a beef with Cuno.

That guy departs this plane of existence and now Cuno aquires a reputation as a gun hand. Not wanting to live that sort of life, he moves to Arizona (from Colorado) and starts a new freight hauling business. He teams up with an old mule skinner and business is good.

He and his partner are hauling freight and Cuno has to deliver a side load. The partners are to meet up in a small town and continue on togther.

SPOILER !!!

Arriving in the town where. he and Cuno are to meet up, a beer sounds good so the freight wagon is left in front of the saloon. He doesn't even get to finish his beer before a gang of a dozen outlaws rides into town and start looting the loaded wagon. He tries to warn them off verbally, but a crazy member of the gang just shoots him dead.

Cuno arrives a couple of days later and finds his partner dead. Having previous experience on the vengence trail, Cuno gets his horse and sets out. to pay the outlaws back.

Everything turns out like you think it should , but getting there is really fun.

Very good. I strongly recommend it if you are a fan of Westerns.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still like the Cuno Massey character, but his motivation this time (they killed his partner) was too much like a 1980's action movie sequel. Especially since you never see any interaction between Cuno and the partner, we are simply told they are close. Hopefully next time the set up will be a little more developed...or the author will just go all the way 80s..."They killed his second cousin twice removed...now he's really mad!"

[Derrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really short quick novel. The description pretty much determines the whole story, not much of a twist or anything else really.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great action. Hero fights for those weaker. His opponents may out gun/ number him, but right is might?

Cuno hits the familiar vengeance trail with backup. Old man Serenity saw killers gang up 10:1 on Cuno's crippled partner, smash their wagon to kindling. Chinaman wants to rescue daughter. Villains take Li Mei through camps of lonely men who pay them for her use.

Typos:
9.12 countertop.top. IS countertop.
20.12 thin-wasted IS thin-waisted

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reading. I like most of this author's novels.

[Jt Greer · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Peter Brandvolt book--loved it.