Outlaw Train

by Cameron Judd

Deputy Luke Cable's job has gotten a whole lot harder lately. He's been the acting marshal of Wiles, Kansas, since Marshal Ben Keely disappeared. It's up to Luke to keep the peace, and that's hard to do since the arrival of the Outlaw Train, a traveling collection of curiosities that includes the remains of notorious outlaws. Scar Nolan came to town right after the train pulled in. He's killed before and, unless Luke can stop him, he's aiming to do it again aboard the Outlaw Train.
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From an April 2012 Amazon reader review of an earlier mass-market paperback edition of OUTLAW TRAIN:

Cameron Judd has long been a creator of fine western novels. Add OUTLAW TRAIN to that list.

It's a story that contains some macabre elements not usually found in western stories, but Judd works them neatly into a novel with nice plot twists and strong character development. Judd has a real knack for describing the manners of small town life. Judd never writes formulaic westerns; he takes chances in his writing, and the result is almost always an entertaining tale … highly recommended.




From a February 2010 Amazon reader review of an earlier mass-market paperback edition of OUTLAW TRAIN:

"Outlaw Train" is an amazing novel. Dewitt Stamps, reformed drunkard and born-again Christian, and Luke Cable (acting town marshal) deal with the Outlaw Train. Where there's outlaws, dead or alive, there's trouble! This time is no exception.

Luke Cable, as acting marshal, fills in for Ben Keely, who has disappeared, and finds himself faced with the Outlaw Train, packed with death, filled with mementos of those who have passed violently, and those dealing in it. The traveling exhibition of mummified villains, while a curiosity, draws undesirable elements. Such a man is Scar Nolan, and his arrival in Wiles begins a wave that threatens to engulf those who fight against it. Add a spiritualist/prostitute, a weather storm that threatens Wiles, and secrets no one wants made known, and Wiles is no longer the quiet place it once was.

Cameron Judd writes a powerful novel that makes Dewitt, Cable, Nolan, Jimmy Willis, and Clara Ashworth jump off the pages. It is taut, engrossing fiction that is not just western literature, but just good literature ... Truly, given this novel 50 years ago, it might have been a fantastic film with Randolph Scott, John Wayne, Harry Carey Jr, Rex Allen, Katherine Hepburn, and Errol Flynn.

Now, it is “just” a great novel!




From a January 2012 Amazon reader review of an earlier mass-market paperback edition of OUTLAW TRAIN:

Cameron Judd does a great job of keeping the reader interested. This tale had many fascinating characters that weaved twisted tale. Loved the whole story and I believe it would make for a great movie.




From a December 2013 Amazon reader review of an earlier mass-market paperback edition of OUTLAW TRAIN:

The train in "Outlaw Train" is two cars on a siding near Wiles, Kansas. I think Wiles is a hypothetical town, but the book implies it's not far from Hutchinson, close to the center of the state, northwest of Wichita ... The action occurs in the late nineteenth century, after the Civil War.

The outlaw train is owned by two deceivers, and for an admission price, they claim to show embalmed outlaws, weapons and other criminal artifacts. Luke is acting city marshal in Wiles, filling in for Ben Keely. As acting marshal, Luke deals with a reformed drunk, with an unreformed prostitute, with murders and murderers, as well as with the operators of the outlaw train. The story moves fast, is five-star, and the outcome isn't predictable.

Genres: Westerns

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 23, 2010

About the author

Cameron Judd (AKA: Tobias Cole) is a bestselling author of over forty historical and Western novels, including The Canebrake Men and Crockett of Tennessee. A former award-winning journalist, he continues to write his acclaimed column “Clips to Keep” and lives with his family in Greene County, Tennessee.

Reviews

[audrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a quote from Publisher's Weekly on the cover of my copy which reads "Judd is a fine action writer."

I'm going to disagree, at least in the case of this particular book:

Luke had moved only twenty feet away from the train when it hit him. He couldn't have said what 'it' was, though, because it came so fast and without warning. A sense of being physically jolted from head to two, a flashing pain and a brilliant flash of light, and suddenly he was on the ground, blacking out before he even had time to finish the thought: I've just been struck by lightning.

But hadn't been that it [sic]. What had struck him was the butt of a Henry rifle.

There's the bones of a decently twisty little plot in here, with mistaken identities, subplots, flying severed limbs, secret attic spaces and juicy splattery deaths of the kind all-too-common in the Old West, but it's all sunken beneath a layer of some of the worst misogyny I have ever read.

There are men in this book who die heroes, or redeemed sinners. There are men in this book who get their comeuppance for being shady carpetbaggers. But the women in this book are, without exception, portrayed as or described by other characters as, terrible. Sex worker hate? Check. Objectification of sex workers? Check. Disdain for unattractive women? Check. Women using their beauty to kill men? Check. Women killing other women over men? Check.

It's kind of astounding.

Beatrice had accused the boy of attempting to watch her change clothes, but no one had believed that. The woman weighed well over two hundred pounds and had a face and shape fit for a grizzly. Even the most lewd-minded boy would hardly wish to inflict upon himself the sight of her in a state of undress.

Hurr hurr, she's fat and ugly so clearly the boy in question, who does in fact go around eavesdropping and peering in windows all over town, wouldn't want to be injured by having to look on a woman who is fat and ugly.

That's the crux of the message of this book: women who are beautiful are grifters and whores, ("Real pretty woman, by all accounts. They say she was the heart of the family and the one who led in the crimes they did."), and the only fitting end for them is death ("I wish she'd visit the Outlaw Train and fall over dead while she was there. She'd be quite the display, that particular woman's corpse.")

Women who are ugly are liars and murderers, and they lie and murder because of their ugliness and how it makes them jealous of women who are beautiful. They make you "discouraged about the durned human race". They're "uppity" and "self-righteous biddies" and the only fitting end for them is death as well: the climax of the book is a tornado that sweeps through town, miraculously killing only murderers, which includes the whore and the spurned woman, but not the window-peeper or any other law-abiding dude.

Also one woman is described as strange, because "she shamed her family and her parents and hurt her reputation by her ways." Her ways, btw, turn out to be short hair, cigar-smoking and men's clothing, wink wink, but that doesn't stop the men in the book from deciding, without having met her, that she's killed the missing marshall. CLEARLY. Also yes, she too, gets her murder on. Apparently the only non-murdering woman in Kansas is the one who's too fat and ugly to be looked at directly without injury.

And in case you're wondering, this is a part of Kansas in 1875ish that's entirely white, too. Because that's as realistic as a mysterious Outlaw Train that travels around the country's railroad tracks despite having no known means of locomotion. But hey, this Kansas has grifters, and a saloon and a jail, and an ugly-ass murderess who has the presence of mind to insert a hatpin into the roof of her romantic rival's mouth repeatedly, so as to leave no trace, WHILE IN THE MIDDLE OF A RAGING TORNADO. Which only seconds later kills her, so HA, ugly biddy, TAKE THAT.

Publisher's Weekly, raise your standards for action writers.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I consider it to be a western but is different than many I have read. I highly recommend it.

Judd's writing kept me interested from beginning to end. I intend to read more works by this author.

[Bryan Boswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book!!!!

I liked this book. No fast draws or shootouts but a good book. Fast paced reads easy. Finished it a 2 days. I recommend this book.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strange things are happening in the western town of Wiles, Kansas. The marshal has gone missing, a severed leg is found near the train tracks, a suspicious character is seen in the town's emporium, and a mysterious and possibly low-account woman is now in town promoting a paranormal medium business. Luke Cable is a deputy marshal investigating these oddities and hires a former drunk to help guard the jailhouse. Then a macabre traveling oddities show comes to town called the "Outlaw Train" (2010).

Verdict: An easy, short western with some quirky characters and a weird mystery.

Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13

[Keith B]

A good read. Haven't read a Cameron Judd novel in a while. Didn't know he was still writing. I love a western.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good, loved the story