Review of "One-Man Massacre," by Jonas Ward

Review of

One-Man Massacre, by Jonas Ward


Three out of five stars

Not the best of Buchanan

 While this story conforms to the persona of the Buchanan character, it simply does not have the charm of others. This is largely due to the fact that there is more gun violence than usual and there is less deep interaction with the secondary characters. Furthermore, the premise of a renegade Texas Ranger with his gang of mercenaries being hired by a large rancher is simply implausible. The timeframe is before the American Civil War.

 Buchanan is on a mountain mining gold with his friend and partner Fargo when he sees the lights of the town of Scotstown and Buchanan would like to take a day off mining and engage in a little bit of recreation. Local rancher Malcolm Lord is in the process of hiring a man that insists on being called Captain Gibbons to roust out small ranchers along the Rio Grande and use the premise of invaders from Mexico as justification. Gibbons has brought along some hired guns and it is only a short time when one of his hardcases is threatening Buchanan.

 Since he did not take his gun with him, Buchanan is forced to borrow a gun from a bystander and he quickly dispatches the professional gunfighter. This makes him a target of the bad guys as well as  a hero to the threatened locals. Buchanan would much rather just go back to mining gold, but the evil forces cannot let him go unpunished for killing one of their best. There is a local woman named Rosemarie that serves drinks in a saloon and the initial incident takes place because Buchanan intervened when the gunman was annoying her.

 With a bad premise and too much gunplay and not enough of the witty dialog so characteristic of the Buchanan series, this is not one of the best of the adventures of Buchanan.