Barquero

GEORGE SCHENCK & WILLIAM MARKS
Barquero

Paperback Library, New York, 1970
(price: 60c; 128 pages)

dedication: To Aub

The blurb on the back:

Marquette's Raiders were a ragged army of ruthless animals, the kind of men who took pleasure in raping and killing. They slaughtered, burned and looted everything in their path; now, at last, they were ready to enjoy their profits. As soon as they ravaged this one last town, they would cross the river and disband.
But one man was determined to stop them.
One man whose raw strength and courage were enough to keep the rabid pack from their bloody prize.
The strange, impassive man they called...
Barquero

opening lines:
Fair lay flat on his bunk, closed his eyes, and remained wide awake. He could hear Lopez dozing fitfully. The Indian slept. Fair eased himself up closer to the fire and started rolling himself a cigarette of marijuana which he had brought up from Mexico.

'A stunning new kind of Adult Western,' claims the cover, by which it means, 'a rip-off of the Sergio Leone school of Western.' The film's okay, but the book is dull and predictable. Mind you, I've never liked Westerns and know virtually nothing about them as a literary genre, so it's just possible that this is an absolute classic of its kind. I doubt it though.

ARTISTIC MERIT: 2/5
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 1/5
HIPNESS QUOTIENT: 1/5

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