This was my first "western novel" and I liked it. I was kind of surprised, actually, but I really liked it and read it quickly. The beginning is the toughest part. Once I was past the first 50 pages, the other 170 (circa) were very enjoyable. I could picture in my mind every scene as if I was watching a western-movie :-)
It's a story of vengeance and hate, mainly, but not only. Donna Tate has travelled a long way with all the money she has left to bribe a guard in order to help a prisoner escape. Varra was sent to the Yuma prison after he killed a man and the Radek family, who had hired him to do it, betrayed him. After ten years he is now even worse than he was before, a ferocious beast who only wants to kill. Donna is going to free him because the Radeks killed her father too, for no reason. Dan Radek had always hated him, and he wrongly accused him of killing his son and hanged him out of his house for Donna to find. Donna wants the Radeks dead; she can't do it by herself but she knows Varra hates them as she does and has swore to kill them. Another prisoner, Owen Sands, manages to take advantage of the situation to escape himself too. He has only killed once, in self-defence, but he was set up for homicide. He escapes with Varra, and Donna realizes soon how irresponsible she has been, to free such a monster (Varra, not Sands).
Sands had to protect her all the way back, because as soon as Varra saw she was a woman he could only think of taking her by force. A true monster.
When they arrived at Donna's house, Varra left to plan his vengeance, while Sands decided to stay for a while to help Donna. Her house has been burned down by the Radeks, and he wants to help her build a new one. Varra wastes no time: one by one the kills Radek's four sons. At first it seemed like it was Sands but Sheriff Purdy understood the truth quickly enough. He wanted to put Donna in jail to protect her from Radek's anger, but she refused. He wanted to put Radek and his remaining two sons in jail to protect them from Varra, but Varra got to the kids before him. Sands was the only one ready to help the sheriff, all the people in town were too scared of Radek. With Sands' help the sheriff puts Dan Radek in jail, but Varra gets him all the same. After having killed all the Radeks, Varra goes to Donna, he hasn't forgotten his little project, and Sands is terribly afraid for her. Sands and the sheriff get there just in time and there is a battle, shots fired (you know the drill if you've ever seen a western movie) and in the end the joined forces of Sands, the sheriff and a little help from Donna are enough to stop Varra by killing him. Sands had been worried the whole time that the sheriff would try to send him back to Yuma, knowing who he was, but now the sheriff is grateful for his help, he was the only one who helped him and even saved his life, and tells him that he can talk to the governor to avoid his extradition, and he would also like to offer him a job as his deputy, so he tells Donna he's going to stay after all, and she's quite happy about it. Now that it was all over, it was the end of hate and vengeance and desperation, and it was a new beginning, for both of them :-) Happy ending :-)
I liked it. I liked this ending because I liked the sheriff too and he survives :-) Only the bad guys die
:-) A good ending :-)
ITA l'assassino di Yuma
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