The Challenge of Smoke Wade

The Smoke Wade Trilogy

By: Robert J. Hogan

Narrated by: Bill Brooks

“Set easy, and keep your hands from them guns....”

On a dusty trail above Elkhorn, three men sat motionless in their saddles. Two of the men were together—Bristol and Trugeon—and they nervously eyed the guns in the saddlebag of Smoke Wade. Bristol had spoken—and Wade knew by the hard set of his butt-like jaw he meant it.

Smoke felt his body tense, his every sense alert for trouble. His horse pawed the ground nervously, reacting to the hair-trigger tension of the puncher’s body. One wrong move on the part of man or horse could ruin a plan for desperate action—a showdown on which depended the lives and homes of many people Wade had never seen.... His lightning hands whipped to his guns—and made the first move....

Long before Smoke Wade rode into the drought-stricken valley his reputation as a feared gunslinger had been known. The ranchers knew him as a pistolero whose cool eyes and lightning hands were just what was needed to stop the Bristol gang. Even as he rode in, Smoke could sense the trigger-taut atmosphere of thirsty men and cattlemen who were itching to get at the bushwhackers whose guns controlled the waterholes. Tempers were getting shorter and guns were being loaded. It was to be a race between the madness of thirst or lead poisoning, Colt style—and the owlhoots asked themselves if even banded together they dared answer the challenge of Smoke Wade.

About Smoke Wade: A rough-and-tumble cowpoke who never came across a fight or a bet he was afraid to take on, Smoke Wade is thought by most to be just another pistolero for hire. But he always seems on the side of justice when the powder smoke settles.

©1951, 2022 Buckskin Editions (P)2022 Wordwooze Publishing

Critic reviews

"Roaring six-guns, thudding fists, and thrills aplenty fill this story." (Boston Post)

Gettin' a little thirsty round here

You gonna skin that smoke wagon?

Smoke Wade is a take on the unnamed gunslinger portrayed by Clint Eastwood, only he has a name, and it's Wade. Smoke, Wade. Wade isn't someone you go hackin' on or making fun of, and when he's in front of you y'all better git outta his way. The premise of the book may be a little over used, i.e. gunslinger rolls into a town in which he's outnumbered but still decides to side with the good people of the town,

In this case, the bad guys have cut off a water supply and folks are getting mighty thirsty, and all the other things that having your water supply cut off would do. Smoke won't abide such behavior and does what he does best. Gun Slinging.

I enjoyed the story and the narration by Brooks. Not every western can be Tombstone or Open Country, sometimes a simple tale works best. I see this is only book 1, and I can't wait for more.

A simple western

A decent narration of an old (circa 1950’s) Western that seems to provide a little background for a pulp action character (Smoke Wade) who left the AZ Range to become an Ace in WW1. The story itself is a pretty simple range war trope with nearly all of the characters shallow stereotypes (and at times extremely irritating) and while the character voices of the narration were very good, the thick idealects make the dialog somewhat cringey. The MC (Smoke) seems a tad more careless than his presumped reputation hints at (mostly getting out of stupid situations by shear luck instead of wits or skill) and gun play is actually pretty rare for a western. The story does pick up toward the end where you sorta get the expected conclusion, so ultimately this was a decent [western] story if you already like the genre.

I was given this free advance listener copy (ALC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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