A Coffin Full of Dollars

The Man With No Name #4

by Joe Millard

product_description

Genres: Westerns, Action, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 1980

Reviews

[Josh Hitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this continuing adventure of the man with no name. In this one there is a three wagon circus ran by a conman, a rival bounty hunter just as good as our Mr. Nobody, a feared outlaw worth a big bounty not counting his many henchmen, and a missing gold shipment assumed hidden in the outlaw's hidden lair. In all of this our bounty hunter is cool and rolls with the punches.

Highly recommended, really does read as just another film in the great Eastwood trilogy.

[Solitairerose · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had no idea there were licensed books based on “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”, but in the 70’s heyday of the men’s action book series, someone got the license for that movie and turned out novelizations and five spin-off novels (at least I can only find information on five…these sorts of things can be lost to time). The first is Coffin Full of Dollars and it falls more in the “men’s adventure fiction” camp than the “Spaghetti Western” camp.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly was a novel on the screen, with big vistas, big ideas and scenes that built the world for the characters to inhabit. Coffin Full Of Dollars feels more like a short story pumped up to fill a certain number of pages. I’m now saying it is bad, but there’s nothing here that wouldn’t be in any number of other genre stories. The writing is competent and the plot keeps your interest as it works its way through the paces. There are a lot of plot twists to pad out the story (characters are caught, then escape, then are caught again and escape again), but all in all it’s a decent enough afternoon read if you like the style of 70’s men’s adventure/pulp novels.

But as for it being a sequel to “The Man With No Name” movies? Not really. The author has to clumsily refer to the lead character (The Bounty Hunter, a nickname the bandits give him, etc…) but there is some tacked on backstory that doesn’t work and other additions that, which they work in this story, don’t come from the mythos established in the film.

It’s good for what it is, but it isn’t much more than what it is.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Millard also wrote some original novels based on the Man with No Name character from the spaghetti westerns. This is one such and is pretty good, although not up to the level of the movies.

[Tamsin Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn't as tightly plotted as 'A Dollar to Die For', but I enjoyed it more.

[Lise]

I bought this book by chance a long time ago after seeing the series of films about the man with no name.

Not much to say so far as I just started the book. He killed and got paid for the bounty on a man named No nose because that man lost his nose.

It was a fun read just like watching a spaghetti western with Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonte, all those Mexican actors, the guy who played the magician from Hell on Gotham, an Amazonesque blonde and twin brunettes.

Of course, what would be those without a crooked sheriff and his deputy.

I of course could imagine The Man with No Name as Clint Eastwood, Shadraq is Lee Van Cleef, Apachito is Gian Maria Volonte, Lupo is one Mexican actor, the crooked sheriff could be played by somebody like Paul Sorvino (he played a crooked chief of police in "Chiefs"), Brigitte Neilson could be Molly and some Italian actress play the twins. But Dandy Deever was definitely for me that dangerous magician on Gotham who tried to have Jim kill himself, you know the guy in love with his own sister?

While I was reading this I felt I was watching a Sergio Leone/Sergio Corbucci's movie.

Joe Millard wrote very well. You felt like you were sitting there watching his characters evolve.

One scene with the twins was particularly interesting, the one where both girls trick the banditos arranging romantic meetings with them which meetings turn into a blood fest as all men accuse the others of lying saying the girl (they think it's only one girl) invited them only.

Well done! Now I have to get my hands on Joe's other novels.

[M.R.W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great entry for the man with no name. A lively and action packed novel from start to finish

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It is pretty well written, with an interesting plot. Sometimes, especially early on, I find the author uses too many phrases that are too modern for the setting, but this seems to tame down as the book progresses. The Man with No Name is in this book a little more jocular out of necessity than he is in the movies, as a hero who never has anything to say would be pretty hard to write. The villains are snake mean in this one as well. All in all, it was good fun, and I will read others in this series.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The man with no name.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my teens I read quite a few Spaghetti Westerns.
The influence was my Dad who use to watch the films.

[Roy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another Millard original Dollar western , wish I still had these books , it's been a long time since I red them .