Hunting Haunts in Ghost Town

Recently, I wrapped up Ghost Town on my Quest 2, the latest release from Fireproof Games, creators of the terrific series, the Room.

I love good "escape room" style games and Ghost Town did not in any way disappoint, blending several challenging puzzles with some astonishingly well-rendered environments and a talented cast of voice actors.

The Room series and now Ghost Town aren't about jump scares or actions that can unalive your character. You might get temporarily stuck on a tricky puzzle or two (and in-game hints are available), but the only thing that really pushes you on is your own desire to see how things play out in the end.

These games are ideal for seated, relaxing play and though I completed Ghost Town, the cliffhanger at the very end that promises a sequel and the desire to do more exploration (I know I walked right past some things and there are also "magazines" you can find and collect and I did not get them all) are motivating me to return to the game soon!

If you've never tried a game like this, I highly recommend picking up Ghost Town or the Room VR: A Dark Matter. You will not be disappointed! 

👻👻👻👻👻 out of 👻👻👻👻👻!

June on the Range Week 3 Update

Have you heard of "the Dakota Kid?" No??? Well, since we didn't even learn of his existence until chapter 25 (of 27), I'm not at all surprised!

My third western novel for this year's June on the Range reading event was West of the Law by prolific author, Al Cody (Archie Joscelyn). Originally published in 1947, I read the Pocket Book edition from 1949. 

The hero of our story is one Tom Chisolm, a smart as a whip gunslinging lawyer who finds himself in the middle of a wild scandal in a town under the control of Symes Gallister and his loyal band, a few of whom are unwilling partners due to threats of extortion.

Chisolm soon meets Gallister's "wife," Molly who insists that she is married against her will and is seeking an annulment. We later learn that she was drugged and wed while out of her mind. We also eventually learn that Gallister married Molly in order to wrest control of her ranch and sell the property to the railroad for an extraordinary amount of cash!

A brutal and fatal encounter with one of Gallister's thugs results in Chisolm being arrested and sentenced to hang for murder, but he manages to escape from his cell via a rather ridiculous twist of fate whereby he discovers a pistol in a rat's nest under his cot. Seriously.

Eventually, Chisolm partners with Molly to do whatever he can to ensure she escapes from her marriage and gains control of her ranch once again, and this takes place over several days, involves driving a herd of cattle to a purchaser, and eventually gunning down Gallister in a pretty wild, close-range battle.

There's a lot of cool stuff in this book (having the protagonist be a lawyer is pretty unique), but the prison cell shenanigans, the arrival of a terrible storm that coincides with a significant part of Chisolm's plan, and the introduction of a nearby ranch manned by a band of eager allies, makes for some fairly unrealistic stuff as well as a few crazy examples of deus ex machina.

Of the two Cody books I've read, I much preferred Bitter Creek, but West of the Law was certainly entertaining despite my issues. I give it two slightly tarnished sheriff badges out of five. ★★

Up next, and for my final book for June on the Range, it's Showdown at Sunset by Harry Sinclair Drago. A slim volume, but a nice way to ease out of this month's reading event.

Rocket Summer 2025

Yes, I know that we're still in the midst of June and we're all enjoying this year's June on the Range Western reading event (as I write this, I'm almost finished with my third book for the month), but I thought I'd take a moment to let you know what I have planned for next month's Rocket Summer event! 🚀

Rocket Summer is an out of this world reading event that celebrates "classic Science Fiction" (from its roots up through the 1960s). Like June on the Range, Rocket Summer comes to us from BookTuber Michael K. Vaughan and the event is structured thusly:

• Week 1 - Science Fiction's humble beginnings up through the 1930s
• Week 2 - The 1940s
• Week 3 - The 1950s
• Week 4 - The 1960s

This time around, I'll be reading books (and novellas) from those eras that have been reprinted and republished in "extra large" paperback editions by Armchair Fiction out of Medford, Oregon.

I currently only own six of these, but between them, all of the above eras are well represented. Some of these are quite short, thus my hope that I will absolutely crush all 12 of them before we roll into August at which point I'll devote a few weeks to Book Trek (more on that later)!

You'll note that of the dozen, SEVEN are from the 1950s, so I may have to cheat a bit with a little overlapping of eras and weeks.

Until then, it's back to them thar' westerns!

June on the Range Week 2 Update

Zane Grey's Horse Heaven Hill is my second book for this year's June on the Range reading event and my first ever book by Grey, renowned dentist(!) and author of over 100 novels!

Coming in at just a little over 180 pages, this relatively short novel stands firmly on the western/romance side of the equation with only a couple shots fired and not a single human casualty, though there are some shockingly grotesque deaths of several wild horses near the end of the text. Yuck!

The story follows young Lark Burrell, a teenage transplant from Idaho who moves to the neighboring state of Washington to live with her uncle and his family including Lark's beautiful and adoring cousin, Marigold Wade.

From the get-go, we learn that Lark, though quite able to take care of herself, is rather naive when it comes to the ways of the world. She's an expert rider, she can shoot, and she knows her way around the fields. She's also extremely fond of horses, and when she learns of a local practice whereby certain depraved individuals have been stampeding massive numbers of wild horses and selling them off for chicken feed (seriously), she loses it.

Throughout all this, she also finds herself smitten with her cousin's fiance, Stanley Weston, a well-to-do and well-educated man, and for most of the book, the two of them opt to not follow through on their feelings for one another until Marigold decides to end her engagement with Stanley, freeing him for Lark's affections.

The latter part of the novel deals with the witnessing one of those aforementioned wild horse drives that concludes with Lark sabotaging and destroying the corral which frees the captured horses.

An almost deadly showdown between Hurd Blanding, the mastermind behind this barbaric practice, and Stan is thwarted by Lark's shooting skills as she blasts a hole in Blanding's shoulder and he quickly retreats with his allies leaving Lark and Stanley to marry and return to Lark's homestead in Idaho.

Overall, it was well written and a decent western/romance novel, but not really my kind of thing. I would give it three sheriff badges out of five. ★★★

The edition I read, chosen randomly from the packed shelves at the Iliad Bookshop in North Hollywood, CA, was published by Pocket Books, Inc. (October 1964).

Up next, it's West of the Law from one of my new favorite western authors, Al Cody (Archie Lynn Joscelyn). Assuming I get through that one quickly, I have a stack of other possibilities taunting me from the shelves including Showdown at Sunset by Harry Sinclair Drago, the novelization of the film, the King and Four Queens written by renowned science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, and the Whistler, a collection of three stories by E.B. Mann.

Keep your eyes peeled for more, pardners, and be sure to read more westerns!

June on the Range Week 1 Update

I started off this year's June on the Range reading event with the novel, Silver Canyon by Louis L'Amour. First published in an illustrated, shorter form in the pages of the June 1951 issue of Giant Western magazine, Silver Canyon tells the story of Matt Brennan (Matt Sabre in the original version), a gunslinger looking to put his past behind him and settle down somewhere for the rest of his days.

At the start of our story, Brennan arrives in the town of Hattan's Point in the south-central Utah Territory where he almost immediately sets eyes on and becomes infatuated with young Moira Maclaren, the daughter of ranch owner, Rud Maclaren. To be honest, his instant attraction and obsession with Moira is a tad on the creepy side, but it is a major motivator in his desire to put down roots as a rancher just outside of town.

Of course, Moira is already in a bit of a relationship and that's just one obstacle in Brennan's journey. Eventually our hero begins to dig in and make himself a permanent resident by partnering with an elderly ranch owner, allying with other ranchers, and getting mixed up in a messy web of lies and twisted business dealings intended to secure the silver of the novel's title (something we don't really learn of until much later in the book).

One of my favorite sequences in the novel involves Brennan being badly injured and hiding out in an oasis where the ruins of an ancient tower loom overhead. There's something almost mystical about this particular setting and I thought L'Amour did a nice job of painting this place where the old world touches the new and our hero eventually departs healed, bearded, and, to some degree, reborn.

There are a few brutal shootouts in the novel, however the primary resolution to things is handled without a single pistol being drawn(!), but violence does return one final time before the book draws to a close.

Surprisingly, this was the very first L'Amour novel I have ever read, chosen randomly from the shelves at Iliad Books in North Hollywood, California and I was rather pleased. It will certainly not be my last!

The edition I read (see above) was published by Bantam Books (New Bantam edition, 3rd printing, March 1972).

Up next for June on the Range is Horse Heaven Hill by Zane Grey! Watch this space for my review of that one, pardner!