Crow 4 : Black Trail. James W Marvin (Laurence James) Corgi 1980
Out of the black shadows of Hell comes...
No other name. Just Crow. Dressed in black from head to toe. The meanest man in the bullet-scarred annals of the West. Nobody ever turned their back on him. A cold voice in the shadows, a vengeful angel of death...
Time was when Crow picked up some business in Crossworld Springs, Arizona. A time he met the biggest, blackest man he'd ever seen. Name of Mavulamanzi. Spoke like an English milord. Seems he was hunting animals and needed Crow for protection, 'specially for his woman, a real English lady. Strangest hunting party Crow'd ever been on. Kinda enjoyed it...until the Apaches showed up. Had to admit there was no one meaner or crueller than one of them savages. Except Crow...
After the usual preamble of the old boy sponging a cigar and whisky money from the suited Eastern stranger, and rambling a little to advertise the previous three books in the series, a young black man walks past to the oldster's disgust, but it reminds him of another story 'bout Crow...
who just manages to survive an extremely tough desert crossing because of a poisoned waterhole, to arrive in Crossworld Springs with high hopes of earning a buck by tracking down a gang of hold up men. Wagons and stages are being robbed, sometimes by whites, sometimes by Apaches, and Crow figures there's a reward if he can bring in the white men.
Moseying into town early in the morning he's surprised to see plenty of townsfolk (even some saloon gals) gathered around a bloodstained buggy. Gutless Sheriff Rogers questions his presence in town and loudmouthed red-faced bully Nate Goldsmith calls him out just as some new folks arrive in town.
Crow does what he does best, but is disappointed to find that the white criminals have been killed and the corpses sent into town by their Indian rivals.
Among the new arrivals is seven foot tall Zulu king Mavulamanzi. dressed like a dude, with a cut glass accent that would make Hugh Grant sound like Danny Dyer, his mysterious veiled properly posh white woman, a yellow Derbied assistant Mikalawayo (Mick for short) and around fifteen Impi 'slaves'.
The Zulu is impressed with Crow and hires him to accompany this strange party on a hunt for mountain lions. As the money is right Crow does so, but things begin to go wrong.
The first hunt ends with the black giant wrestling a puma, and Crow blowing it apart with his shotgun, rendering it useless as a trophy. Mavulamanzi and his entourage go in search of more big cats, leaving Crow to look after the woman. When the unlikely pair are alone, Lavinia Woodstock (as she is called) removes her veil and the rest of her clothes, and they get down to it. On hump number three Crow hears a rifle bolt being pulled back and curses his carelessness as three junior mescaleros hove into view...
Although he wins out in this encounter, it's not long before a larger band of Apaches have decimated the hunting party, kidnapped Lavinia (her mother was a Powter, you know) and hightailed it towards a safe arroyo. Or rather, they think it's safe.
Against his better judgement (but with an offer of a large amount of cash) Crow joins the Zulu king, now adorned in full tribal gear and gradually shedding his civilised veneer, plus the hapless Mick, on a desperate rescue mission...
Laurence James own version of Edge, although short-lived, carved out his own niche in PC history. (And it's hilariously ironic just how un-pc many PC westerns are). Crow has even less to recommend him than Edge, being completely selfish and mercenary, but somehow, you can't help admiring the anti-hero son of a bitch, as he rewrites the old Western myths in his own violent way.
I can forgive LJ almost anything when he comes up with
"The old tales still stirred the blood. Of Jesse and Billy and Wes. Of Jed Herne and the man they just called 'Edge'. Jack Ryker and the big Mimbrenos Apache, Cuchillo Oro. And Crow."
"Like a nervy shootist called Lee once said. Lee had gotten himself killed swatting some flies away from a little village south of the border against Calveras. With Chris and half a dozen others. He'd said he had no enemies. Alive."
"His eye was caught by Jeremiah Harknett, part-owner of the stables, standing on top of the barn to get a better view of the gunfight."
"Once said that he'd finally discovered what it was that women truly wanted from men. Said he was told it by a man he'd shot out near the Mex border. Man called Limey Howell..."
Viva LJ!
