The War Wagon

In Mexico, the governor of a rebel state had hijacked a shipment of Lee-Enfield rifles and enough ammunition to start a small war. The president of Mexico was worried, the president of the U.S. was worried-Gatling didn't give a damn. But his boss, the colonel, told him to get those rifles back or get another job. Gatling couldn't afford a drain on his gold reserves, so he agreed. On one condition ... Peter J. McCurtin was born in Ireland on 15 October 1929, and immigrated to America when he was in his early twenties. Records also confirm that, in 1958, McCurtin co-edited the short-lived (one issue) New York Review with William Atkins. By the early 1960s, he was co-owner of a bookstore in Ogunquit, Maine, and often spent his summers there. His westerns in particular are distinguished by unusual plots with neatly resolved conclusions, well-drawn secondary characters, regular bursts of action and tight, smooth writing. If you haven't already checked him out, you have quite a treat in store.McCurtin also wrote under the name of Jack Slade and Gene Curry. Gatling was a master armorer, a dead shot and an expert in his field-which was death. Armed with the latest automatic weapons from all over the world and paid in gold to test them on living bodies, he was probably the single most dangerous man in the Old West. At his command he had more firepower than a cavalry regiment, and more guts than a Cheyenne war party.