Ralph Compton Shadow of the Gun

Written by Ralph Compton and Joseph A. West

Narrated by Pete Bradbury

The USA Today best-selling Ralph Compton series drives forward with this tale of a man looking to abandon his past and carve himself an honest future. John McBride purchases a restaurant in the eerily named town of Suicide. But marauding Apaches, rampaging outlaws, and even the townsfolk are driving tensions sky high-and McBride isn't exactly a welcome newcomer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 11, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440760198

Ralph Compton

Ralph Compton stood six-foot-eight without his boots. His first novel in the Trail Drive series, The Goodnight Trail, was a finalist for the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer Award for best debut novel. He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series. A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, Compton worked as a musician, a radio announcer, a songwriter, and a newspaper columnist before turning to writing westerns. He died in Nashville, Tennessee in 1998.

[jimmaclachlan · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Audio book read by Pete Bradbury, Recorded books 2009. So far, the reader is good, but the story line has made me cringe a couple of times. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to finish it. The hero is an ex NYC police detective who tries his hand at being a range detective & then as a shop keeper. That's when we get to the first idiotic plot hole. He screws that up, almost gets killed by Indians, but is luckily rescued by an old Army scout. OK so far, but then he rides into town, has 1 meal at a place & buys it with all his money. Come on! How could he possibly be sucked in like that? He was a cop in NYC, scam central, for crying out loud! Yet he buys in without even inspecting the bar or the kitchen? Didn't ask around even though he ate an entire meal there & was the only customer? No one is that stupid, but apparently it was the only way for this author to suck him into the situation. One more huge leap in stupidity like that & I'll have to bail.

I had to bail. Too many idiocies. I think I know the rest of the story, anyway. Yuck. Why did I think an author writing as another would be any good? Well, I didn't find that out until I'd downloaded this. I should have looked closer.