This hard-boiled "midwestern" is set in the summer of 1892 in some unnamed city big enough to turn out over 4,000 fans for a nasty boxing
match. The focal character is Leo Guild, a 55-year-old bounty hunter convinced
by a boxing promoter to help stage a fight between a white man and a black man.
A bloodthirsty crowd is expected, believing they’ll be witness to a killing in
the ring—and not the killing of the white fighter.
It’s an ugly set-up, and Guild has seen enough of the
world to know it’s not much different from what passes for everyday human
behavior anywhere. Stoddard, the promoter, is a tyrannical blowhard, loved only
by a loyal son, Stephen, whom he abuses and scorns.
The white fighter, Victor Sovich, is equally hateful.
Given to insane rages, he abuses women and boasts that he likes to kill people.
One young fighter died during a bout after Sovich poisoned him to slow him down
in the ring. His opponent in the upcoming match is a Franklin Rooney, a man
past his prime whose only aim is to survive the fight. The longer he can stay
upright, the more he gets paid. He only half understands that the crowd has
gathered to see him die.
 |
| Kansas City, Missouri, 1906 |
Guild meets a pistol-packing mama, Clarise Watson, intent
on avenging Sovich for the poisoning of her brother. Guild, unconcerned by
their difference of color, maneuvers to keep her out of harm’s way. Also keeping her
company with hotel breakfasts and after dark walks, he discovers her to be a
consenting adult.
Stoddard hires Guild to guard the day’s take during the
fight. He has promised Sovich to split it with him, but hires a thief to
conveniently steal it. Sovich will get nothing, and Guild is intended for a
bullet during the robbery. By mid-novel, death is in the cards for several
characters, and however it plays, you know it will all end in tears. Which it
literally does.
Guild is an interesting invention. He’s both tough and
scarred, haunted by the death of a “little girl” in his past. It is a memory
that will not let go of him. Whiskey and sex
provide temporary relief. For the rest of the time, life is a matter of simply
not giving in, and relying on his .44 as needed.
 |
| Ed Gorman |
The novel reads like a 15-round fight, each chapter a
sharp jab or a punch. Gorman’s point of view shifts among more than a
half-dozen characters. And there are curious details, like the women carrying
placards in the street protesting the sport. A referee describes the
gruesome extremes beyond which he will not let a fight continue. A Mexican
woman’s mother scolds her for leaving her children to follow a man who will
discard her when he’s tired of her.
Blood Game is
currently available in paper and audio formats at amazon, Barnes&Noble, and
AbeBooks. For more of Friday’s Forgotten Books, click on over to Patti Abbot’s blog.
Image credits:
Author's photo, amazon.com
Wikimedia Commons
Coming up: Glossary
of frontier fiction
Yep, definitely a good one, although I will probably always love his westerns best
ReplyDeleteI have read and enjoyed a couple of westerns by Mr. Gorman including "Cavalry Man: The Killing Machine." His characters are realistic and his writing style is compact.
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