When it comes to good, gritty outlaw western novels off the beaten path, one author always stands out: James Carlos Blake.
The first book of his I read was In the Rogue Blood and I gotta tell you; as a writer it blew my socks off!
The character development and attention to historical detail without sacrificing the narrative flow really had an impact on me.
After that I read The Pistoleer which was based on the life of John Wesley Hardin. It heavily influenced a short story of mine I would write later called Of Kith and Kin.
The third novel of his I read was The Wildwood Boyswhich was based on the life of Bloody Bill Anderson, the famed Missouri Bushwhacker Guerilla of The Civil War.
Like all of Blake’s work, the novel dives deep into Anderson’s family history. It methodically carves out the family “business” which was horse rustling. From a very young age Bill learned the outlaw life and developed a sincere hatred of any form of authority. Family, his father taught Bill, was the only thing you could trust in this life, and as such the Anderson clan was vey tight knit.
When the issue of slavery begins to divide the country in the 1850’s and eventually violence breaks out and blood begins to spill in Kansas and Missouri, the Anderson clan takes full advantage of the chaos and lawlessness and make a fortune stealing horses in one state and selling them in another.
When war is declared, The Anderson’s curtail their banditry and retreat into the Missouri bush to wait it out. Father and Mother Anderson have no plans to sacrifice any of their children to this idiotic war.
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