Free (Kindle) Sixgun Showdown by A. A. Glynn [Homestead Acts Historical Western]

[ATDrake]

Sixgun Showdown by British author A. A. Glynn (ISFDB, SFE), is his standalone western historical action adventure novel, set in the aftermath of the US Civil War and making use of the tensions arising from the historical Homestead Acts (Wikipedia) as homesteaders are beginning to move into droves into the more southerly portions of the once Wild West, which a retired former major objects to and begins to bushwhack perceived newcoming encroachers upon his territory, and a man he calls upon for help with this has to find a way to put a stop to the violence perpetuated by the rancher who would have once been his father-in-law, free courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press' Pioneering imprint, who are e-printing it from its 1994 edition originally out from Robert Hale's Black Horse Western imprint under the Art Flynn pseudonym.

Even though it's probably all just a backdrop for a rollicking gunfight story, I'm impressed that the premise hangs so strongly on actual historical stuff that did cause significant amounts of murderous tension, and not just the usual “wandering cowboy returns to place he once knew that has now gone wrong, shoot-out with them varmints who've been corrupting ye olde hometown now ensues” sort of setups for most of the blurbs I've seen so far.

Currently free @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and pretty much everywhere else that Amazon sells worldwide, since this is being done via their KDP Select exclusive-or-else program)

Description
A showdown for the south…

Dan Herrick hasn’t ridden through Arizona in nearly six years. A Texan man himself, he’s been wayfaring north.

But then a letter came from ‘Major’ Cal McDade, the owner of the Walking C Ranch and Herrick’s father-in-law.

Or he was to be his father-in-law, if Elizabeth, the love of his life hadn’t died from Typhoid those six years previous.

At the time, McDade had cursed his name but now he’s asking for a favour – in the form of a gun.

Before he even gets there, Herrick has an idea of why.

McDade, after all, is an old-school free-range beef rancher and a former Confederate Major.

But the once wild west is dying and its borders are being tamed. The government has passed the Homesteader Act and once free land is now being fenced off.

McDade’s type won’t hear of it – especially from Washington ‘yankies’. His land is his and he’ll see no homesteader take it from him.

On his way to the local town of Centro, Herrick witnesses a man being bushwhacked by two strangers.

His only clues to go on are a strange impression of a longhorn in the dust and some broken matches.

Unsure if the law has got to Centro, he hides the body; his fears are founded, as the town is even more dilapidated then it was six years ago.

Most of the good folk have already left northwards, and it seems that McDade has made the mistake of hiring some suspicious gunslingers.

Herrick takes an instant disliking to one – a longhaired gunnie, with a smooth Mid-Eastern accent and a navy Colt at his side.

The violence has got to end and Herrick knows that he’s the man to wrangle the last remnants of both the Wild West and the confederate south in one big Sixgun Showdown…

[ZodWallop]

From your title, I was thinking 'Homestead acts historical? Do I really want that?'

Then I saw the title was Sixgun Showdown and immediately snagged a copy!

[Dr. Drib]

Got it.

Thank you!