South Of the Border

In a 21st century era where the grande western novels of yesteryear seem gone by the wayside, comes an authentic wild west storyteller in the vein of Zane Grey and Walter Noble Burns. John Byrne Cooke's, South of the Border: The Return of Butch Cassidy, is a rip-roaring -- and plausible -- bit of alternative history to Butch dying in Bolivia. Cooke's spellbinding tale picks up just after Word War I, in the young fledgling boomtown of Hollywood's silent pictures era, when westerns are the call-of-the-day, being cranked out by the hundreds. Enter Charlie Siringo, old Texan and ex- Pinkerton, famed for his decade long chase of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, until their untimely South American demise. Charlie now runs a Hollywood boardinghouse for cowboy actors and actresses, one of whom Charlie becomes involved in a May-December romance with, Victoria Hartford. But, were the reports charlie had gotten all those years ago about Butch's Bolivian death right? Now, Out of the Southwest rides a lone horseman with a colt strapped to his belt, that injects himself into Charlie's life at the boardinghouse, and into Victoria's heart. The fella' calls himself Leroy Roberts ... is he really? This story has a bang-up action adventure climax in the deserts of Old Mexico that will grab you in a heart-pounding ending. For wild west frontier lovers, this is a gotta' have, gotta' read! This was Mr. Cooke's 2nd work. His debut western novel, Snowblind Moon, was a Spur Award Winner.