Right from my child hood i had a fasination for
western stories and i got all the more addicted because my uncle had a big collection of western books. J.T. Edson, Louis L’Amour and Oliver Strange were the three authors whom i really liked. But when i comes to my favourite, there is not contest, it is Sudden.
This is the story of a western gun fighter named Sudden. His real name is Jim, who travels in search of two men who cheated his foster father. He had promised his dying father that he will find the two and take revenge. He takes up the name of James Green. Later he gets accused of a robbery himself and is forced to become an Outlaw.
He earns the nick name, Sudden, due to lightening quick gun speed and is careful to keep a low profile where ever he goes. He is characterised as a man who respects the law, not just hell on wheels. He is intelligent, with an eye for detail. In most of the stories you will find him pleading his case in a court room towards the end and he manages to come out in flying colours towards the end. Not to forget the gun display.
Most of the stories follow a similar pattern of him arriving in a town unnoticed and later finding himself in the middle of a range war. But the author has been successful in keeping the interest of the reader alive in all his books. I would not say the same of the books that were written by Frederick H. Christian about the same character.
Despite belonging to the potboiler league with conventional and predictable story lines, the novels are notable for the sharp cutting dialogues, one-liners, dry and laconic wit, fast pace, language style, and description. Further, they provide a reasonable description of the Wild West style-the living styles, the speech mannerisms, and customs. All the
Sudden books are now out of print and those who have them and love westerns cherish them like a treasure.
Try sudden once and then you would know why i blabber a lot about these books.
More reviews about the Sudden