Carol's Notebook

What happens when a cowboy decides to turn detective? It's 1893 in Montana, and Big Red and Old Red Amlingmeyer sign on ranch hands at the Bar VR. They're expecting hard work and little pay, but there are a lot of secrets at the ranch, and when more than one body turns up, Old Red, who in reality is only in his late 20s, decides to emulate his hero, Sherlock Holmes, and solve the case. I listened to this on audio. William Duffs was the perfect narrator. It felt like I was sitting around a campfire listening to Big Red tell about their adventures, about sticking by his brother even when he thought it was crazy, about the goings-on at the ranch and the big house, and about the other cowhands, overseers and uppity British owners. The brothers are a great team, opposites who work well together. Gustav, Old Red, is the brains, but he's a quiet fellow and can't read. Otto, Big...

I first visited The Skillet in Koehler's The Ace of Spades. It's a rough, tough, alternate Old West with a steampunk feel. Life is downright miserable for Jake Stryker, an indentured servant (slave) for the powerful, rich local family. His friend is an old Indian and they are surviving, but then a Bad Hand Man comes to town, to play a deadly game of poker with Jake's friend. Jake, the son of a dead gambler, takes the matter into his own hands and his life changes forever. But is it better or worse? The Bad Hand Man is just scary. Jake seems him as Death, as a nightmare come to life. The creature must have been at least seven feel tall, a white skeleton wrapped in a black shroud of a duster lined in faded royal purple. Its long white hair glittered like metallic filaments in the greasy light of the oil lamps strung along the walls. Its desert-blasted eyes looked sick...