BACKTRAILS
March
2012
The Writing of Old Guns
Lance Howard
Western Villains
December
2011
New authors
Mike Stotter ebooks
Gunfighters
September
2011
Real/Reel Cowboys
Ebooks debate
Serenade for Misfit Lil
June
2011
Lessons from True Grit
Tha Ballad of Jack Martin
Ross Morton beginnings
ABC of Branding
March
2011
Trouble with Misfit Lil
Horse Opera Renaissance
Fargo Creator's Pattern
December
2010
Books for Writers
Read by Jake Douglas
The Talking Wire
September
2010
Joshua Dillard
Paperback Blues
Remington Part 3
June
2010
Imagination in the Saddle
Last word on Blurbs
Remington Part 2
March
2010
Jack Martin #2
Justice and the Western
Frederic Remington
December
2009
Ross Morton
Faith and a Fast Gun
Sex and Violence
Gold Robbery Mystery
September
2009
Steve Hayes
BHE Books
Paul Lederer
Accurate words
June
2009
Jack Martin
Series Heroes
Riding the Range
March
2009
Blast to Oblivion
Tyler Hatch and Twins
Night Herding
Walt Masterson
December
2008
All Guns Blazing
Jim Bowden & Co.
Revolver Conversions
September
2008
Western Noir
Power of the Premise
West on Wheels
June
2008
Plot or Not Debate
Jack Giles
Whitney Revolver
March
2008
Walt Masterson
Plotters and Pantsers
More Horse Talk
December
2007
Peace at Any Price
Dan Claymaker
Horse Sense
(For links to editions March 2006 to
September 2007, please go via December 2011)
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BLACK
HORSE EXTRA
Black Horse Extra appeared as a quarterly
online magazine for six years from March 2006. It promoted the western
genre and the work of authors published by Robert Hale Ltd in the Black
Horse Western series of hardback novels sold mainly to the UK public
lending libraries. Today, most of the active authors run personal blogs
and websites. Links to some can be found lower in the column to the
right, while past editions of Black Horse Extra can be accessed using
the links to the left.
In December 2015 Robert Hale Ltd
ceased operations, stopped trading, and has been described
since
as "inactive". Companies House, a UK Government body, reported
the Hale publishing house was dissolved on 5 December 2017
with last
accounts made up to 30 June 2015. The Hale imprint "Black Horse
Westerns" passed to a small press, The Crowood Press, based in rural
Wiltshire. In November 2020 this company, which claims to be "unable to
ship to customers outside the UK", announced Black Horse Westerns were
no longer viable. Back
catalogue titles were available while stocks lasted. Today,
Crowood does not publish or list any fiction.
Happily readers can still purchase
modestly priced ebooks by former BHW
writers online. These are published in digital formats by several
companies, including Piccadilly Publishing and our own Black Horse
Extra Books. Excerpts can be read (and the books conveniently
downloaded) at leading ebook retailers like Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes
& Noble, and Kobo.
"I
am a big
fan of the Black Horse Westerns line and have read two of your [Chap
O'Keefe]
books as eBooks. They were excellent! I'm looking
forward to
reading more…"
– Austin Kaiser, PhD,
Department of History,
University of Oregon
Kyle Hardy was the
drifting kind, and looked it. A
saddle-bum folk reckoned when he rode into Sweetwater Valley. But he
came with a job to do. And before he could act, guns blazed on Main
Street and Kyle was pitched into a bitter conflict.
On one side was Big Bart
Brannigan,
cattle baron and ruthless land grabber; on the other, pretty young
Verity Tyler, courageously standing by her disabled rancher father.
In one tempestuous
night, Kyle was
framed for murder and faced a crazed lynch mob — and the
whole hellish set-up came to an explosive climax!
Find the ebook at
Smashwords or other
retailer HERE
The
rebel is Tom Tolley, ex-Confederate fighter in the bloody Civil War.
Returning home to the family farm in the wilds of Arizona, he expects
the enmity and the killing to be over. Instead he is met with flying
lead!
The
heiress is
Mary-Ann, indulged only child of millionaire Huey J. Charters. Will her
willfulness and fondness for pranks be her downfall, or can they be
turned into a feisty courage as events take a gruesome turn?
Sparks
fly
when Tom, dispossessed of his farm, meets the impish heiress. He is
landless — worse, an unforgiven grayback for whom there is no
pardon in the untamed country he calls his home. But the pair are
thrown together against a hostile town, a scheming murderer, and the
mysterious Jed Carbone, a pitiful drunk who knows more than he's saying
…
"You're
hurting, Tom, I can tell," Mary-Ann tells Tom when they are held
captive by four ruthless rogues possessed by gold fever. "We've got to
get away from this pack of maniacs. We must!"
"It
wouldn't work," he mutters. "We both know it. It wouldn't work
…"
The
best of the West loaded with five-star suspense, adventure, romance,
action, thrills!
Find the
ebook at Smashwords or other retailer HERE
Will Kearny reckons he has a job
for
working life, ramrodding iron-willed Pete Thwaites' Rocking T outfit.
But after winning a bruising fight with the brutish troublemaker
“Bull” Jusserand, Kearny is dealt an inexplicable
blow.
Old
Pete abruptly
quits the struggle for survival and sells out to his sworn enemy
— Jusserand's boss, the range hog Franz Sturman, ruthless and
immoral owner of the Arrowhead spread.
Mystery
deepens when
Seabury Reece, Sturman's tricky lawyer, traps Kearny into riding herd
over a “cargo of brides” from back East. What is
the secret of lovely Christine Smith, the sad-eyed, odd girl out among
what proves to be a hell-raising bevy of fallen women?
Before
Kearny finds
the answers, he has to make room in his full hands for a roaring
six-shooter!
"O'Keefe
pens another entertaining page-turner full of winning characters
… Running
alongside the scheming around Rawhide Fork was the story of Christine
Smith who had lived in New Mexico until age 10 when her mother left her
father and she and her mother made passage to New York. Nine years
later, her mother having passed away, the pure, indebted, seemingly
helpless Miss Smith was still in New York finding it impossible to make
ends meet. She responded to an advert from Rawhide Fork looking for
women hoping that this would give her free passage to be reunited with
her father. It's the slightly delicate Miss Smith and Kearney's urge to
protect her that makes this story so appealing."—Amazon US
reviewer M. J. Bradley
Find
the
ebook at Smashwords or other retailer HERE
Ex-Pinkerton
detective Joshua Dillard, gun for hire, took on the job of
troubleshooter for a French theater company touring the West. Just
routine bodyguarding, he supposed … till he met the amazing
Gisèle
Bourdette, a publicity-hungry superstar ahead of her time, choking
the 1880s New World puritans on their censorious piety.
Joshua
committed the blunder of intimate liaison with an eager
Gisèle,
falling foul of her leading man and lover, Henri Rabier-Roget
— a
talentless hunk scourged by jealousy and the morphine habit.
Meanwhile,
ruthless Borderland bandit “Loco Louey” Velarde was
after the
actress' unbanked takings, transported at her quaint insistence in
gold coins.
And
sensitive Lorena, daughter of domineering rancher and cow-town opera
house founder Bennett Maxwell, resisted an unwelcome suitor.
"Chap
O’Keefe is a fine storyteller and keeps the action moving
along
at a very nice pace … Joshua Dillard’s adventures
always
play a bit like hardboiled detective yarns set in the Old West, and
this one is no exception. The author throws in a number of plot twists
and brings everything to a suitably rousing climax. I had a lot of fun
reading THE GUNMAN AND THE ACTRESS, and if you’re a
traditional
Western fan, there’s a good chance you will, too.
Recommended."—New
York Times bestselling author James Reasoner
"Another
enjoyable Western … Good
writing, good characters, and lots of action."—Amazon
US reviewer
Norman Beaver
Find
the
ebook at Smashwords or other retailer HERE
Sam Hammond was nudging
fifty, conscious of his years and sometimes
wondering just why he'd become a lawman in the first place. Then the
troubles really began.
First,
he narrowly escaped with his life after a moonlight gun battle with a
trio of rustlers. Meanwhile, abrasive range detective Herb Hopkirk had
ridden into town. Gun-handy, Hopkirk shot dead a rash cowpoke, crippled
Sam's young deputy, Clint Freeman, and pestered Miss Sarah, pretty
daughter of rancher John Snyder.
A
man-hungry widow and a bunch of newspaper cuttings about a mysterious
bank robber dubbed Dick Slick added to Sam's headaches. Was it time for
him to quit the peace-officer business before he wound up dead?
BONUS FEATURE: "Can a Black Horse Be Noir?"
"When
it comes to popular fiction, Keith Chapman is something of a
treasure … beyond that he’s a writer and editor
whose career stretches back 60-some-odd years, to the days of Sexton
Blake and EDGAR WALLACE MYSTERY MAGAZINE, of which he was the founding
editor. Over the years he has also been a prolific author of fine
Western novels under the pseudonym Chap O’Keefe, many of them
published originally as Black Horse Westerns by Robert Hale. The good
news for Western readers is that quite a few of those novels are
available again as e-books, and more are in the works … As
you’d expect from his background, Chapman is an excellent
yarn-spinner and storyteller. He writes books that are just plain fun
to read, and A GUNFIGHT TOO MANY is no exception. The action moves
along at a good pace and Sam Hammond is a really likable protagonist.
The villains are properly despicable, as they need to be in a book like
this. I had a fine time reading this novel and think most traditional
Western fans would agree … Keith Chapman is working
in a legendary tradition." — New York
Times bestselling author James Reasoner
Find the
ebook at Smashwords or other retailer HERE
In Denver, a
shotgun blast brutally ends a man’s life and sets in motion a
deadly chain of events that threatens Joshua Dillard, drifting
detective and former Pinkerton agent. Hired by a beautiful woman to
untangle the mystery of her brother’s murder and bring the
killer to justice, Joshua’s investigation takes him to the
raw and dangerous mining town of Silverville, where he finds a web of
deception, greed, lust, and violence. Aided only by an eccentric
hermit, Joshua will need all his cunning and gun-skill to avoid being
blasted to oblivion himself!
Inspired
by the classic Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear,
veteran Western author Chap O’Keefe spins another exciting
tale filled with action and plot twists galore.
“Mr
O’Keefe has reworked the plot of a Sherlock
Holmes story as an exploit of his ex-Pinkerton protagonist Joshua
Dillard. The result is clever, atmospheric and
exciting.” – The Sherlock
Holmes Society of London
“The
story opens with an epigraph from The Valley of Fear,
and with good reason: the book is a western, with plenty of color and
atmosphere and violence, and a mystery that will not be a surprise to
those who have read and remember Conan Doyle’s
story.” –
Peter E. Blau, the Baker Street Irregulars, New York
A band of
Apache bucks
led by a charismatic hothead abandons reservation
life to go on a bloody rampage. In pursuit with Lieutenant Michael
Covington’s
cavalry detail is civilian scout Jackson Farraday. But a showdown looms
between
the pair when Jackson is misled by Lilian Goodnight, a harum-scarum
youngster
who boasts the handle “Misfit Lil, Princess of
Pistoleers.” After a clash
with the Apaches and the slaughter of an Army paymaster and his escort,
Jackson
is fired. But his troubles are only just beginning when he’s
framed for murder
by crooked Sheriff “Wheezer” Skene. Can Misfit Lil
make amends by saving
her reluctant hero?
BONUS FEATURE: Heroines
of the Wilder West
“A fast-paced
book that relates the adventures of
independent-minded, tough cowgirl Lilian Goodnight. Lil is a fine
horsewoman,
expert at roping calves and driving cows and is an excellent shot with
a
pistol, too. Apparently, she can also out-cuss her father’s
ranch-hands....
Most enjoyable and recommended.”
Nik Morton, author of Write a Western in 30 Days
A
Kindle ebook available
from Amazon
HERE
Drift Garrity followed a
grueling cowboy life. Working the grub line,
poorly fed and without prospects, he determined to unravel the
mysteries
of the deprived past that had made him what he was. His objective
brought
him within a trigger-squeeze of death from Mad Dungaree Dan, a
reclusive
ex-miner who lived in a mountain ghost town where he kept captive his
two
beautiful daughters, Melissa and Isabella. Also to be tackled was Zack
Emmett,
vicious range boss and one-time gunfighter. The trail would lead Drift
to
dirty tricks, accusations, and finally to deadly gunplay amongst the
ghost
town ruins.
“Highly
recommended as an old-fashioned western thriller for fans
everywhere.” – Midwest Book Review
A Kindle ebook available
from Amazon HERE
"One
of my favorite characters in current Western fiction, Chap O'Keefe's
freelance
range detective Joshua Dillard, returns in a novel originally published
by
Robert Hale in 2005. It's now available in an inexpensive ebook edition
and
is well worth reading.
"This
novel delves into Joshua's past, flashing back to his days as a
Pinkerton
operative when he was sent to a mining boom-town in Montana to corral a
gang
of outlaws operating in the area. While he's tackling that job, he gets
mixed
up in the schemes of a beautiful saloon entertainer and is unable to
prevent
a deadly saloon robbery. The loot vanishes, and so does the songbird.
"Years
later, after personal tragedy has led him to quit the Pinkertons
and
embark on a hardscrabble life as a drifting troubleshooter, Joshua
returns
to that same Montana town, which is still plagued with lawlessness.
This
time he's hired as the local marshal, and a daring stagecoach robbery
is
the first act in a chain of events that might give Joshua a chance to
redeem
himself for his earlier failure—if he can survive a hail of
outlaw lead.
"As
usual, Chap O'Keefe (who is really Keith Chapman) throws in some
nice
plot twists and packs the yarn he's spinning with plenty of gritty
action.
The pace never falters, and The Lawman
and the Songbird
delivers top-notch Western entertainment. Highly recommended, as are
all of Keith's books." – James
Reasoner at Rough Edges
"Can't
go wrong with Keith. Glad to hear this is out in ebook form." – David
Cranmer
"Cool.
Gonna go have a look at this." – Charles Gramlich
"I
think I’m right in saying this is the
fifth book in Chap
O’Keefe’s nine-book series about Joshua Dillard,
but you don’t have to have
read any of the previous tales to fully enjoy this one. In this story
Dillard
has more than met his match in Kate Thompson, who makes for a very
strong
female lead character who seems to be one step ahead of everyone else.
Having
said that the robbery she masterminds doesn’t quite go
according to plan
and the chase is on.
"Chap
O’Keefe once more presents the reader with a fast-
paced book filled
with action and a twisting storyline. Never was it obvious how this
tale
would end and the conclusion does come as a fitting surprise. As with
all
of Chap O’Keefe’s books I’ve read this
one left me eager for more. If you’ve
not read one of his books yet, then may I suggest this as an excellent
introduction
to his extremely readable writing." –
Steve
M at Western Fiction Review
A Kindle ebook available from Amazon HERE
"Jim Hunter and
Matt
Harrison are best friends and the owners of the once-thriving Double H
ranch in Trinity Creek, Texas. Their cowpunchers have heeded the call
of the Civil War and now they are trying to keep the enterprise afloat
in lean times. It does not help that the Double H’s cattle is
a frequent target for rustlers and that the sole remaining member of
their crew is disabled Mexican-American War veteran Walter Burridge.
"When the raiders take their pillaging a step further and burn the
ranch to the ground, killing Old Walt in the process, the partners have
no option but to leave the area and look for a job in the nearby port
city of Brownsville. Matt and Jim soon realize that the war has also
exerted its toll on the once-busy border town as work is hard to come
by. Matt, a Union sympathizer, joins the Northern Army while the
pro-Confederacy Jim chooses to stick around. He soon hooks up with the
sensuous Lena-Marie Baptiste and her brother Raoul whom, among other
business ventures, smuggle guns for the southern forces.
"Peace at Any Price by Chap O'Keefe is the
quintessential action-packed Western .... Sparsely written and at times
frantically-paced, it introduces the characters with a few broad
strokes and then wastes no time in pitting them against all sorts of
challenges. Jim returns from the war but the Double H and Trinity Creek
no longer feel like home, not in the least because his former darling
Alice Cornhill has married someone else in the interim. Fate leads him
right back to the Baptistes, their dubious business concerns and a
face-to-face encounter with the ruthless Woodson Waldrop, the man he
suspects burnt down the Double H.
"In this age of bloated techno-thrillers and three-page chapters
designed not to upset MTV-addled attention spans, Peace at
Any Price is a refreshing story that delivers genuine,
non-stop entertainment ... highly recommended."
– Saddlebums Western
Review
A Kindle ebook available from Amazon HERE
OR depending on country of residence and other
factors, the
Smashwords edition HERE
may be a preferable option.
San
Francisco was hot. Too hot
for troubleshooter Joshua Dillard after a vice lord drew a gun on him
in a ritzy Russian Hill parlor house and he was obliged to blast him
down with his Peacemaker. So Joshua brought forward a railroad trip to
the wilds of Colorado where he had a job lined up for him by a
mysterious Leigh Jordan, of New York City. In Colorado he was soon
embroiled in more bloody mayhem, this time with hostile
attorney Walt Sloane and his thugs. Enter a femme fatale
needing his unorthodox services, take a ride into the rugged foothills
of the Rocky Mountains, and Joshua was soon neck-deep in deception,
deviancy, and murderous gunfire. The facts that emerged concerning an
abusive father, his adopted daughter, and a contestable Manhattan
inheritance fell into place to tell an ugly story...
"Western
gold. The Archive urges
readers to support
the creative community by paying the meagre price for the book ... we
can
guarantee you a damn good read. O'Keefe is a master of the genre."
– Gary
Dobbs/Jack Martin at the Tainted Archive
"Joshua
has to put it all
together, survive several
murder attempts, and help a young woman stuck in the middle. As always,
author
Chap O'Keefe gives us a fast-moving western tale and a satisfying
read."
– Randy Johnson at Not the Baseball Pitcher
A
Kindle eBook available from
Amazon HERE.
Where was Emily
Greatheart? The pretty young lady from Denver had gone to Arizona to
meet her dead fiancé's mother and vanished. Only a
bloodstained jacket was found in an abandoned spring buggy hired from
the Pike's Crossing livery stable. Emily was the daughter of Big Jack
Greatheart, ex-marshal and one-time tamer of brawling boom-towns. But
Big Jack lay in his bed in Colorado, frustratingly crippled by
arthritis and a skeleton of his former self. So he called on
ex-Pinkerton detective Joshua Dillard. Joshua followed a cold trail and
hot impulses into battle against ambitious cattleman Bart Waller and
his gun-handy, womanizing son, Vincent. No wonder he was soon up to his
reckless neck in two-fisted, lead-slinging trouble!
"As
usual, Chap O'Keefe (who's really veteran author and editor Keith
Chapman,
as most of you already know) spins this tale in terse, no-nonsense
prose
and skillfully throws in enough plot twists to keep things racing along
to
a powerful climax. Joshua Dillard is a fine character, a dogged
investigator
who's plenty tough when he needs to be, and his own tragic background
adds
a touch of poignancy to his adventures. I've probably said this before,
but
fifty years ago these books would have made good Gold Medal paperbacks
or
Double D hardbacks.”
–
James
Reasoner
"I
always enjoy a
skillfully written cross-genre novel. Chap O'Keefe'sSons
and Gunslicks is a
Western/Mystery
that manages to hit the right notes in both genres.... Dillard himself
is a great character, almost a frontier Mike Hammer, who doesn't take
crap off anyone and isn't above beating up thugs for information when
ratiocination fails. He's also a standup guy who's looking out for
those who can't look after themselves, the classic tough/tender sleuth
in a Stetson and duster.” – Charles
Rutledge
A Kindle eBook available
from Amazon HERE.
Paid
to mind other
folks’ business, Joshua Dillard did it with a .45 Colt
Peacemaker. But he also had a mission of his own, and when Butch Simich
and his bunch stuck up the stage from Tucson he swung into vengeful
action. Stirring it along came Dorothy-May Pennydale, spirited daughter
of a whiskey-soaked way station boss. And in the thick of it from the
start was Clement P. Conway from New York City, hack writer of dime
novels – a greenhorn with guts plunging out of his depth. The
fight led into treacherous territory, up against rogue marshal Virgil
Lyons and saloonkeeper Dice Sanders, whose greed for women and money
produced mayhem ... and the most violent gun battle the one-horse town
of Hellyer’s Creek had ever seen!
"Chap
O’Keefe has assembled a terrific set of characters for this
Joshua Dillard
novel that begins with a stagecoach robbery and then never lets up with
action
until the end ... Dillard isn’t above making mistakes, and
after being captured
by the stage robbers he’s left in a 'how’s he going
to get out of this situation?'
that will keep any reader turning the pages to discover the answer. Shootout at
Hellyer’s Creek should appeal
to all
those who enjoy traditional westerns filled with
non-stop
action, and at just under $3.00 / £2.00 how can you afford
not to give
this a try?” – Steve M at Western
Fiction Review
A Kindle eBook available
from Amazon HERE.
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