Six-Gun Samurai #3: “Gundown At Golden Gate”
by Patrick Lee (William Fieldhouse). Thomas James Fletcher joined the Navy as a
young boy, but while in Japan he is alone and struggling to survive when a
powerful Samurai takes him under his wing. For the next twenty years he is
trained as a Samurai. A letter from home tells him of the problems plaguing his
family in Georgia, and he returns to seek vengeance upon Colonel Edward
Hollister, the leader of a renegade commander and his troops, raiding and
pillaging, killing and raping. As an American, raised in the land of the Shogun
and trained as a warrior knight in Japan, he’s now known as Tanaka Tom Fletcher
and bound by the Samurai code of the Bushido to a bloody vendetta against the
Yankee marauders who slaughtered his family in Georgia. He must carry out his
mission to its ultimate conclusion – the destruction of his enemies or himself.
This is the basic premise of the backstory and series. In this current story
Tanaka Tom Fletcher’s quest for vengeance has led him to San Francisco, where
an agent of his archenemy, Colonel Hollister, is running for mayor of the great
city. Tanaka Tom intends to terminate his campaign. However, there is a violent
power struggle between the forces of the corrupt politicians and the ruthless
blue dragon tong society, and Fletcher finds himself in the middle of two
warring factions – and both sides want him dead. This is a silly plot for a
western series, but good writing for the most part. Don’t expect much
characterization, but there is plenty of action.
Possibly the best book in the series.
ReplyDeleteBetter than the other one I read in the series.
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