Winters’ War (English Edition) Formato Kindle

was ok not great. had to force yourself to finish.

My friend Matt Mayo has started re-issuing some of his early books under his own Gritty Press imprint, and in the case of WINTERS' WAR that name is certainly appropriate. This is a indeed a gritty book, a fine hardboiled revenge Western.

After a prologue reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs in which the author supposedly finds the manuscript that tells this tale in an old trunk on an abandoned ranch in Wyoming, Mayo launches into the story of pioneer cattleman Niall Winters and his wife Jenna. Several years earlier, Niall was forced to fight a range war to keep an interloper from stealing his land, a conflict that people in the area sometimes refer to as Winters' War. That's not the only war Niall has to fight, though, as a spree of murder and kidnapping that has its roots in the earlier troubles breaks out. Complicating things even more is that fact that the first snowstorm of the season is roaring down on Wyoming, and it promises to be an unusually bad one.

Mayo's smooth prose keeps things moving along at a fast pace, and the plot twists and turns in a series of well-written action scenes so that the reader can never be sure who will survive and who won't. The sympathetic characters are appropriately likable and the villains suitably despicable.

WINTERS' WAR is a fine traditional Western that's well worth reading, and I'm glad it's available again in both e-book and trade paperback editions. If you're a Western fan, you need to check it out.

Winter's War my first Matt Mayo book. Future Westerns will have a hard time living up to it. While spending 17 hours in a hospital recently, reading that story was a great diversion. The descriptions of his characters along with the setting draws you right in,holds your attention and leaves you wanting to pick the next installment. Which unfortunatley is not yet out. His women characters aren't hysterically screaming hiding behind their men but strong and self-reliant. If you like a good Louis LaAmour tale then I recommend you get ahold of one of Mr. Mayo's stories. You won't be disappointed.

Matthew P. Mayo has a keen eye for the absurd. His Westerns are steeped in authenticity and boiled in action, but it is Mayo's skewed vision of the world that lingers long after the final page. He shows us the mythic West with the sharp, clear eye of a realist looking through rippled glass.

Mayo is the author of the novels WINETRS" WAR, WRONG TOWN, and HOT LEAD, COLD HEART, and the editor of WHERE LEGENDS RIDE: NEW TALES OF THE OLD WEST. At his finest, Mayo captures the surreal and very human quality of everyday life in the 19th century west. His protagonists meet whatever comes their way with nonchalance; they struggle in a world of misperceptions and uncertain realities, come what may. Time and again they must sort out the mythic from the mundane, the weak from the strong, the bizarre from the necessary. Yet, even deep within the most tangled cases of mistaken identity and the darkest of back alley nights, Mayo is always in control of his craft.

Mayo writes evocative prose, gritty characters, and action-packed scenes. Themes, as he has mentioned in interviews, "of self-reliance, overcoming adversity, [and] the satisfaction felt when a tough job is well in hand" run smoothly beneath the characters and the action.

If you enjoy authors like Jack London, Mickey Spillane, Jim Thompson, Loren D. Estleman, Robert J. Randisi, James Reasoner, Larry D. Sweazy, Peter Brandvold, and Johnny D. Boggs, then you will find a kindred spirit in Matthew P. Mayo--a kindred spirit who is nonetheless very much an original voice in the landscape of Western literature.

I'm not a frequent reader of Westerns, really, so when I get the urge to read one I'm more and more likely just to reach for a Matt Mayo book. The pacing is always excellent, the characters believable, and the stories a great escape into the archetypal days of old. As a winter guy, I particularly enjoyed the events of this novel taking place in the middle of a snowstorm. I'm not saying there aren't other quality Western writers out there, I'm just saying that Mayo is certainly among them.