Cash Laramie and the Sundown Express - Book review

 

This is a first: a Cash Laramie novel written by a collaboration of two authors – in this case, Edward A Grainger (the character’s originator) and Scott D Parker. Previous novels in the series have been penned separately by Grainger or another author. One reason for this combination is that the adventure also features Calvin Carter, ex-actor and detective, created by Parker.

It begins with a mystery: a train is approaching the rail station from the wrong direction. There’s a special delivery thrown onto the platform – a dead body with a message attached. The new train, the Sundown Express, the fastest in the West, has been hijacked by a group of desperadoes. And they want a ransom paid by sunset or they’ll start killing passengers every hour!

To compound matters, the senator’s daughter is one of the passengers, as well as the famous Lillie Langtry. Railroad detective Carter is on board also, but he’s clearly out-gunned.

Chief Penn sends Marshals Laramie and Miles on Mission Impossible – board the speeding train and take down the criminals without any innocent lives being lost. They’re helped by an army colonel and an eccentric professor and a revolutionary invention. Welcome to steampunk Wild West!

The scene is set for a fast-paced no-holds barred adventure, pitting the guile, wits and bravery of our three heroes against the considerable fire-power of at least ten cold-hearted gunmen. And all the while the deadline approaches.

There are some cunning twists in the story and a fair number of darkly humorous one-liners, too. The authors manage to visualise all the main players succinctly, conveying realistic interaction between them, while keeping the narrative heading on track towards the explosive denouement.

A fast, satisfying read. It’s a while since we’ve seen Cash Laramie; it’s Great to be able to welcome him back.

Disinterring Coffin for Cash - 2

This is the second article offering some illumination on several background inspirations for Coffin for Cash (published 2015 by Beat to a Pulp).

Here, we’ll look at The Lenore Casino owned by Baron Hans Von Kempelen.:

‘Long before they reached the entrance to the casino complex, Cash and Corman rode past dozens of white-painted wooden posts, all lined up neatly: “Setting out the lots for the baron’s town plan,” Corman explained.

            ‘Finally, an entrance arch of Doric columns declared “The Lenore Casino”. From here curved a wide drive bordered with sagebrush flowering yellow, red, pink and orange; mixed with these were sego lily and larkspur. The drive led to a long two-story building, its veranda graced with a series of Corinthian columns. A rooftop terrace commanded a view of the surrounding countryside, and above the entrance doors, rising from the center, was a latticework tower with a huge clock-face showing Roman numerals; a big metal pendulum swung below, partly visible through a long narrow window above the entrance.

            ‘They tethered the horses at hitching rail at the front steps.

            ‘A good distance away on their right was a marble edifice, with a life-size winged angel on top.

            ‘“That’s the baron’s little mausoleum,” Corman explained, his voice thick and laced with gravel. “It’s where his wife’s buried – minus her heart.”’ (Coffin for Cash, p70)

***

Kempelen’s casino was based on the Prussian nobleman Count James Pourtales’s Broadmoor Casino near Pikes Peak in central Colorado. There is no resemblance between the fictional baron and the real Count Pourtales.

 

Pourtales was smitten since he first met his cousin Berthe in Prussia. Apparently they married young in those days: he wed Berthe in 1866, when she was fourteen and he was about the same age!

On reaching maturity, he was anxious to find some good investments to build upon his inherited wealth in Europe and found himself in Colorado, where, in 1887 he bought a failing dairy farm – about 2,000 acres – called the Broadmoor, intending to make money by selling milk and butter to the nearby growing town of Colorado Springs. As that didn’t work out so well, he then decided to establish a resort town on that land, calling it Broadmoor City. He built a dam to create a lake and felt that nearby Cheyenne Mountain would be a big beautiful attraction.

Seeking to lure prospective buyers to purchase lots, he built a pleasure palace, the Broadmoor Casino upon the dam.

The casino was enormous and grand, some 244ft alongside an artificial lake stocked with trout.

There were thirty-two Corinthian columns and it had a rooftop terrace.

The double staircase led to a grand ballroom and concert hall, three dining rooms and a salon for the ladies, plus two game rooms. There was a resident orchestra and he had acquired a French chef.

He installed gaming rooms on the first floor but intended making his profit on the sale of liquor since nearby Colorado Springs was a dry town. Whiskey was only sold as medicine in drug stores; there might have been a lot of people needing medicine, we can imagine.

The opening was on July 1, 1891. By the Fourth of July more than 15,000 people had visited the resort. Unfortunately, there were not many buyers of plots and, some eighteen months later, Colorado’s silver mining was affected by the financial panic of ’93. Pourtales declared bankruptcy. Four years afterwards, in 1897, the Broadmoor Casino was destroyed in a fire which started in the kitchen; witnesses reported hearing the booming of barrels of wines and liquors stored in the cellars.

While visiting Italy in 1908 the count died unexpectedly, aged 54; Berthe pre-deceased him in 1905.

 Coffin for Cash

Cash Laramie has been in plenty of tight spots, but this – being buried alive – may be his last! 

It all started innocently enough, as a favor for his boss, accompanying a rich woman in her search for her brother. The trail leads to The Bells, a strange hotel run by a brother and sister team, which just happens to be adjacent to the funeral parlor and cemetery...

His friend Miles is nearby, intent on escorting a suspected murderer to Cheyenne for trial. Yet Miles discovers that his charge might be not guilty, after all, and lingers to ask questions. And those inquiries mean upsetting some people, which leads to an ambush, and a final reckoning at the outlandish casino complex constructed by a wealthy bigoted German baron.

Throw into the mix the attractive Berenice, a schizophrenic bank manager, irate miners, Chinese workers, a boisterous slot machine salesman, and a devious lawyer and you have another explosive adventure for the Outlaw Marshal.

Disinterring Coffin for Cash - 1

This is the first article offering some illumination on several background inspirations for the noir western Coffin for Cash (published 2015 by Beat to a Pulp).

When asked to write my second Cash Laramie novel, I decided to try something different by paying homage to Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).

I’d recently read an interesting biography of the author by Julian Symons, entitled The Tell-Tale Heart (my blog Review – The Tell-Tale Heart, February 6, 2016) so embarked on a fascinating plotting and writing journey involving many Poe references (related in my blog Dark Echoes, October 9, 2017).

Besides the references already itemized in the blogs mentioned, there were other links:

The bank manager, who appears to be schizophrenic, is called William Wilson. Poe’s 1839 short story ‘William Wilson’ concerns a doppelganger, a ‘double’;

Mr Usher Corman is a gun-for-hire. Of course his first name is taken from Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. And Corman is a nod to the legendary film director Roger Corman who produced and directed several Poe inspired movies, among them House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tomb of Ligeia and The Premature Burial.

Indeed, almost every chapter heading relates to a person in Poe’s life or a character or place in his writing: viz. Premature burial, Berenice, Raven, Wilmot, The Bells, Amontillado, the oval portrait, pendulum and pit, and tell-tale heart.

The back cover superbly echoes the theme with a raven on the branch of a dead tree.

Coffin for Cash

Cash Laramie has been in plenty of tight spots, but this – being buried alive – may be his last! 

It all started innocently enough, as a favor for his boss, accompanying a rich woman in her search for her brother. The trail leads to The Bells, a strange hotel run by a brother and sister team, which just happens to be adjacent to the funeral parlor and cemetery...

His friend Miles is nearby, intent on escorting a suspected murderer to Cheyenne for trial. Yet Miles discovers that his charge might be not guilty, after all, and lingers to ask questions. And those inquiries mean upsetting some people, which leads to an ambush, and a final reckoning at the outlandish casino complex constructed by a wealthy bigoted German baron.

Throw into the mix the attractive Berenice, a schizophrenic bank manager, irate miners, Chinese workers, a boisterous slot machine salesman, and a devious lawyer and you have another explosive adventure for the Outlaw Marshal.

Dark echoes

Reading my western Coffin for Cash, you might think there is the odd echo or two from some of Edgar Allan Poe’s work. And you’d be right.

The Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles westerns were created by Edward A. Grainger, who has generously allowed other writers to embellish his characters’ lives in separate self-contained novels. They are noir westerns, so I believed it would be fitting to absorb some aspects of Poe for Coffin for Cash, the twelfth book in the series.

To begin with, I wanted to start the story with a life-threatening event for Cash Laramie. Finding himself buried alive seemed to fit the bill. The Prologue then, inevitably, has the title Premature Burial. Poe’s short story ‘The Premature Burial’ was published in 1844.

Poe’s 1835 story ‘Berenice’ is one of the few tales where the narrator is named; director Eric Rohmer made a short film of Poe’s story in 1954. Berenice is the narrator’s cousin and she is buried alive. Chapter 1 of Coffin is titled Berenice: Berenice Rohmer, an heiress who seeks the help of Cash in locating her missing brother, Horace.

“Hello, Marshal Laramie,” Berenice Rohmer said as he approached. She looked at him, her golden brown eyes shining brightly, appraising. Boldly, he returned her scrutiny. She was probably in her mid-twenties, buxom, curves pressing alluringly against the green velvet jacket; a matching hat sat askew atop her long red hair that was done up and tamed by jewelled pins. Beneath the skirt, her legs were crossed; she wore black lace-up boots with a high heel. Thin pale red lips parted slightly and then finally formed into a smile.(p4)

Gideon Miles is Cash’s closest friend. He’s at Fort Bridger to escort an accused murderer for trial, Vincent Raven, a black settler. Raven has been accused of murdering the postmaster, Mr Edgar Clemm. A local lawyer, Rufus Wilmot, saw Raven standing over the body.

Poe married his first cousin Virginia Clemm in 1835 – he was 27, she was 13 though the documentation stated she was 21. Virginia’s mother, Maria Clemm (née Poe), lived with the couple. Their relationship has been debated over the years: was it ever sexual, or were they living virtually as brother and sister? Nobody knows. I melded Poe with Clemm; it seemed apt. As for Wilmot, I decided to use Rufus Wilmot Griswold’s first two names; anthologist and editor Griswold was castigated by Poe the critic and yet perplexingly Poe chose him as his executor. After Poe’s death Griswold attempted with some success to destroy Poe’s reputation, yet hindsight confirms that Poe is remembered through his work while Griswold is not.

By now, you can see that several influences or names permeated the writing of Coffin. Chapter 2 is titled Raven. Poe’s poem ‘The Raven’ was published in 1845.

“Well, sadly for Raven, he was found in the town’s post office standing over the slain postmaster, Mr Edgar Clemm. Packets of opium were strewn about. He denies it, naturally, but the postmaster was still warm, according to a lawyer, Rufus Wilmot, who entered moments later. Sheriff Arnold Royster brought Raven here for protective custody, before he could be lynched. There’s bad feeling about him in the town, as well; Mr Clemm was a greatly liked citizen of Green River.”(p11)

The sheriff is named after Sarah Elmira Royster who was Poe’s sweetheart, but they became estranged, until years later she was engaged to Poe shortly before his death; she may have influenced his work.

Cash’s trail leads to The Bells, a strange hotel run by a brother and sister team, Roderick and Madeline Allan, who keep a black cat. ‘The Bells’ was one of Poe’s last poems, published in 1849 after his death; ‘The Black Cat’ short story was published in 1843. Coffin echoes the theme found in this story. The name Roderick is high-jacked from ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ (1839); Roderick Usher has a twin sister, Madeline.

In Chapter 6 titled Amontillado, we find that there is a Monsieur Valdemar staying at the hotel; he supplies the establishment with wine. Poe’s stories ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ (1846) and ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar’ (1845) lent themselves to the plot and characters.

The chapter headings Pendulum and Pit and Tell-Tale Heart owe their existence to Poe, too. There are several other allusions to Poe’s life and work; none dominate the story, which is essentially a gothic western.

Coffin for Cash