Thursday, June 24, 2010

Bullet for a Ranger - James J. Griffin

BULLET FOR A RANGER is James J. Griffin’s latest novel featuring Texas Ranger Jim Blawcyzk, and as always, it’s an excellent traditional Western novel with plenty of action and a very likable protagonist.


This one opens with Blawcyzk in the same sort of predicament that the protagonists of numerous classic hardboiled crime novels find themselves in: he wakes up naked and hungover in a strange bed, with a beautiful woman beside him who happens to be dead. The similarities to those “man on the run” novels continue as Jim is arrested for murder by the corrupt local authorities and eventually has to escape and try to prove his innocence while eluding capture.


Of course, it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll be successful, but Griffin throws in a nice twist or two along the way. You probably won’t be surprised by any of them, but in this case the fact that you know what’s coming while the characters don’t actually added to my enjoyment of the book.


Jim Griffin always brings a lot of passion and enthusiasm to his work, and he’s a gifted yarn-spinner. I had a fine time reading BULLET FOR A RANGER, and if you like traditional action Westerns, I think you will, too.

3 comments:

Richard Prosch said...

Sounds terrific. Thanks for the heads up.

Evan Lewis said...

I think these books are actually memoirs of Jim's previous life.

Anonymous said...

I always said I was born 100 years too late and in the wrong part of the country. At least I can live vicariously through my rough-ridin', hard-shootin', Texas Ranger characters.

BTW, hard as it might be to believe, one of my readers was absolutely convinced Jim was dead, and that Smoky had shot him down. She really gave me what-for about that.

Jim Griffin