A Bullet for Billy the Kid: A Western Trio

Five-time Spur Award–winner Henry has been dead since 1991, but his many western novels and stories live on in print and film. These three novellas were previously published in magazines in the 1950s and '60s, and show Henry's great skill in creating colorful racy westerns. In “The Fourth Horseman,” Frank Rachel, a redeemed outlaw, seeks sanctuary and a new life in Peaceful Basin in 1883. Instead, he finds heartache and a bloody range war that forces him to strap on his six-guns again. Mountain man Kirby Randolph, in “Santa Fe Passage,” goes to St. Louis in 1839 looking for a wife and meets “half-breed” Aurelie St. Vrain. Kirby signs on as a scout for the wagon train she's taking to Santa Fe, a journey filled with steamy sex, treachery and Indian attacks. “A Bullet for Billy the Kid” is an unvarnished portrait of the murderous youth, showing him to be a cowardly back-shooter who likes killing. A mysterious stranger named Asaph adds a supernatural element, befriending Billy and guiding him into the gun sights of Pat Garrett. These are excellent westerns, smartly written and loaded with gun smoke and clever plot twists. (Jan.)