Dodge the Devil

Gunsmoke #5

by Joseph A. West

The devil wants his due. Bare-knuckle prizefighter Ben Hillman beats Dodge City's toughest rancher-but with his sister in the hands of a gunslinging hustler, he needs a thousand dollars to buy her freedom. To raise it, Hillman must fight a rematch. Matters get worse when maniacal preacher Barnabee Shaklee and his lowdown clan start a tide of lawlessness in town. As fight fans mob Dodge, Marshal Matt Dillon has to corral the Shaklees, or the main event won't be the prizefight-it will be murder and mayhem.

Genres: Westerns

355 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2006

About the author

Joe West was born and raised in the seaside town of Saltcoats in Scotland. At 19 he became a police officer, but soon turned his love of writing into a career as a journalist, working for the Daily Mirror in London among others. In 1972 West was recruited as a reporter for the National Enquirer, and began working in the United States. Traveling the world in search of stories, West almost froze to death on an Alaska mountain, and a spider bite nearly killed him in the Amazon rainforest. 'I swelled up like a balloon and turned a real pretty violet color,' he recalls.

Now a full-time novelist, West and his wife Emily reside in sunny Lake Worth, Florida, where he enjoys tamer pursuits like canoeing the alligator-infested swamps of the Everglades. His daughter Alexandria attends a local college where she studies forensic technology. She will have absolutely nothing to do with canoes and alligators.

West researches the settings of his novels by exploring the terrain in person, usually with little more than a sleeping bag and a can of coffee.

Recently he and Emily celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at the Lodge in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, a gift from the students at Rio Rancho High School who use West's first novel as a textbook. They then spent a month in the mountains and deserts of New Mexico, often pitching their tent where the air is thin at 9,000 feet above the flat.

Reviews

[John Bruni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great Gunsmoke book from West. In this one Matt Dillon finds himself in an unusual position (for him): he's facing off against a Jack the Ripper type serial killer in Dodge. Not only that, but he also has to contend with a boxer whose next fight could kill him, the boxer's sister (a dove attached to a notorious gambler and pimp), said gambler and pimp, a possible raid from the Cheyenne (which is, oddly for a western, the least of Matt's problems) and a religious fanatic and his family of thieves. That's a lot to juggle, but Matt Dillon does very well, especially since he has Festus Haggen at his side. And, surprisingly, Quint Asper! By this time in the TV show he was long gone, but it was good to see Quint back in action.

I don't know who I think I'm convincing with these reviews to read Gunsmoke books. I'm fairly certain at 45, I'm the youngest Gunsmoke fan in the world. I don't imagine there's a lot of clamoring for further Gunsmoke books, but dammit, this series by West is top notch. All of them are so good I'd put them up against a lot of the TV episodes. In a world where I can't stand most media tie-in books, that is saying a lot.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great original Gunsmoke tale from Joseph West. Like usual Marshall Dillon has his hands full, this time with a bare knuckle boxing match that has the town in an uproar. On top of that there is a crazy preacher and his sons who are after Festus because he shot and killed one of his thieving sons. Plus some Indian problems and the main problem is a serial killer dubbed the Moonlight Ripper who is killing young women in horrible ways. Dillon does what he usually does and goes after each problem anyway he can whenever the opportunity arises no matter the danger.

Highly recommended, can recommend the whole series to this point.

[Read1000books · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have now read all six of Joseph A. West's Gunsmoke novels (based on the 20-year t.v. series, for those of you too young to remember) and I liked this particular book about 50/50. It has more profanity of the four-letter variety than I recall in the others, and the violence was way more graphic than necessary. On the positive side, the "voices" of the main characters was spot-on as usual (although people starting to say something then changing their minds was repeated far too frequently), and I liked the several interwoven plots, including the mystery killer only revealed at the end. I always enjoy the forewords by James Arness (who played Marshal Matt Dillon in the series) wherein he recounts personal memories from the show, and the occasional touches of humor such as this query by Festus regarding the identity of King Herod (in the Bible): "Matthew, who is that Herod feller ol' Barnabas was talkin' about, him that kills innocents and sich? Is he some kind of outlaw down in the Territory maybe?". Perhaps the deputy could use a few more Sunday mornings in church...

[Captain Basil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book to any Gunsmoke fan or anyone with a fondness for a good Western. The author does a great job of meshing the TV series characters with real historical figures of the day and the real Dodge City. The radio and TV Dodge City was a somewhat sanitized version.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forward by James Arness, so I know he approved. Matt, Kitty, Doc & Festus characters true to form. The bloodshed and violence esp towards women got kinda graphic, but guess thats the way of the old west. Heck look at the violence we live with in this day & age, you'd have thought humankind mighta learned somethin by now...