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Firewater
The race is on…
Nick Carson, a lone traveller, Pierre Gamont, an unscrupulous half breed, and Slick Hartnell, a ruthless outlaw, all sought an untold fortune in gold.
The problem is that it lies deep in the heart of Indian territory.
The Indian tribe is under the leadership of a white woman, who was captured as a baby.
Her name – Glorious Smile.
Her tribe were gradually absorbing western civilisation and she was all too aware of the harmful effects that alcohol could have amongst her people.
Glorious Smile made it explicitly clear that alcohol was forbidden.
However, Gamont ignores her laws and sells whiskey to a renegade Indian in return for gold.
When Glorious Smile discovers several of her braves murdering a fellow brother under the influence of firewater, she tracks down Gamont and sentences him to be lashed.
However, things don’t go according to plan.
Nick Carson escapes, sending the tribe on a warpath.
Glorious Smile’s leadership is put to the test, she must not back down.
But Shining Fire is willing to do all that he can to undermine her and take the woman's place as leader.
He will stop at nothing to get what he wants, even if it means helping the enemy…
Firewater is a rip-roaring thriller, perfect for fans of Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey.
'A classic story of adventure and courage in the Old West.' - Tom Kasey , best-selling author of Trade Off .
John Russell Fearn (1908-1960) is well remembered as almost single-handedly driving the post-World War II boom in British publishing with a flood of science fiction, detective stories, and westerns. His writing appeared under various pseudonyms and has been translated into many languages around the world. His other westerns include Thunder Valley , Rule of the Gun , Town Without Law , The Wreckers and Skeleton Pass .
Nick Carson, a lone traveller, Pierre Gamont, an unscrupulous half breed, and Slick Hartnell, a ruthless outlaw, all sought an untold fortune in gold.
The problem is that it lies deep in the heart of Indian territory.
The Indian tribe is under the leadership of a white woman, who was captured as a baby.
Her name – Glorious Smile.
Her tribe were gradually absorbing western civilisation and she was all too aware of the harmful effects that alcohol could have amongst her people.
Glorious Smile made it explicitly clear that alcohol was forbidden.
However, Gamont ignores her laws and sells whiskey to a renegade Indian in return for gold.
When Glorious Smile discovers several of her braves murdering a fellow brother under the influence of firewater, she tracks down Gamont and sentences him to be lashed.
However, things don’t go according to plan.
Nick Carson escapes, sending the tribe on a warpath.
Glorious Smile’s leadership is put to the test, she must not back down.
But Shining Fire is willing to do all that he can to undermine her and take the woman's place as leader.
He will stop at nothing to get what he wants, even if it means helping the enemy…
Firewater is a rip-roaring thriller, perfect for fans of Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey.
'A classic story of adventure and courage in the Old West.' - Tom Kasey , best-selling author of Trade Off .
John Russell Fearn (1908-1960) is well remembered as almost single-handedly driving the post-World War II boom in British publishing with a flood of science fiction, detective stories, and westerns. His writing appeared under various pseudonyms and has been translated into many languages around the world. His other westerns include Thunder Valley , Rule of the Gun , Town Without Law , The Wreckers and Skeleton Pass .
- GenresWesterns
172 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 22, 2016
21 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
John Russell Fearn
376 books7 followersA prolific author in various genres under his own name, John Francis Russell Fearn also used these pseudonyms: Astron del Martia, Brian Shaw, Conrad G. Holt, Dennis Clive, Frank Jones, Geoffrey Armstrong, Griff, Hugo Blayn, John Russell, K. Thomas Mark Denholm, Paul Lorraine, Polton Cross, Spike Gordon, Thornton Ayre, Vargo Statten, Volsted Gridban, Dom Passante, John Cotton, Ephriam Winiki, Lawrence F. Rose, Earl Titan, Ephraim Winiki.
John Russell Fearn was an extremely prolific and popular British writer, who began in the American pulps, then almost single-handedly drove the post-World War II boom in British publishing with a flood of science fiction, detective stories, westerns, and adventure fiction. He was so popular that one of his pseudonyms became the editor of Vargo Staten’s Science Fiction Magazine in the 1950’s! His work is noted for its vigor and wild imagination. He has always had a substantial cult following and has been popular in translation around the world.
John Russell Fearn was an extremely prolific and popular British writer, who began in the American pulps, then almost single-handedly drove the post-World War II boom in British publishing with a flood of science fiction, detective stories, westerns, and adventure fiction. He was so popular that one of his pseudonyms became the editor of Vargo Staten’s Science Fiction Magazine in the 1950’s! His work is noted for its vigor and wild imagination. He has always had a substantial cult following and has been popular in translation around the world.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 8, 2016
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was captivating, dark and gritty, and full of surprises. All Grant Hansford wanted to do was to get his family to California and prospect for gold. As leader of the Settlors he was doing his best to get all of the families from Southern Kansas, through some pretty hostile Indian territory. New Mexico was Redskin territory, and Grant had no doubt they would be seeing them before the journey was complete. No sooner had they set up camp for the night, when they were suddenly attacked with Indians shooting arrows from a number of different directions. Most of the families were able to hide, except for an unlucky 4 that were struck and killed. It didn’t take long to work out the Indians were using poison arrows. The second attack was just as vicious, and Slick Hartnell took the opportunity to knock Grant out, as he wanted Grants wife Nancy for himself. He thought he had made it away safely from the Indians with Grace and her daughter Betty, but the Indians caught up to their fleeing carriage pretty quickly. Slick managed to escape, but Nancy was shot through the head with an arrow. Then the Indians decide to take Betty with them as raise her in their tribe, and rename her Glorious Smile. No one would have thought that she would grow up and one day be chief of the tribe. John Russell Fearn has done a fabulous job with this story. I was completely pulled in, and easily lost track of time. Do yourself a favour and read this story, you won’t be disappointed.
October 25, 2016
GNA I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, John Russell Fearn, and Pioneering Press in exchange for an honest opinion. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.
This is an old fashioned western, originally published in 1950, and a classic of the genre. I have a personal problem with it -my New Mexico is home to many of the autochthonous Pueblo Tribes mentioned often in this novel. Acoma Pueblo, 60 miles west of Albuquerque, the oldest continuously inhabited city in North America, has been occupied since AD1150 by the Navaho and Zuni tribes. ALL of the pueblo communities in the SW US were built before a white face of any sort was ever seen in the Americas. Also, there were very few conflicts with the peaceful Pueblo dwellers. The majority of the conflicts were between the settlers and US military against the Comanches and Apaches, tribes that were hunter/gatherers, rather than the farmer inhabitants of the various Pueblos of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. Of course those fact and figures were not available in 1950 but as you read, please keep them in mind.
That said, this is a pretty good Nickel Novel. Thank you, Pioneer Press for bringing back this classic tale.
pub date June 22, 2016
Pioneering Press
This is an old fashioned western, originally published in 1950, and a classic of the genre. I have a personal problem with it -my New Mexico is home to many of the autochthonous Pueblo Tribes mentioned often in this novel. Acoma Pueblo, 60 miles west of Albuquerque, the oldest continuously inhabited city in North America, has been occupied since AD1150 by the Navaho and Zuni tribes. ALL of the pueblo communities in the SW US were built before a white face of any sort was ever seen in the Americas. Also, there were very few conflicts with the peaceful Pueblo dwellers. The majority of the conflicts were between the settlers and US military against the Comanches and Apaches, tribes that were hunter/gatherers, rather than the farmer inhabitants of the various Pueblos of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. Of course those fact and figures were not available in 1950 but as you read, please keep them in mind.
That said, this is a pretty good Nickel Novel. Thank you, Pioneer Press for bringing back this classic tale.
pub date June 22, 2016
Pioneering Press
July 15, 2017
This is a really poor story, but thankfully a quick read.
Although the characters are quite good the story itself has to many coincidences and is rather silly.
Although the characters are quite good the story itself has to many coincidences and is rather silly.
September 16, 2016
Although reasonably well written, the story is very unbelievable. Things happen that don't make sense. Toward the end things get absolutely ridiculous.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews