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Charity, Colorado #1
The Law in Charity
John Russell experiences his first year as sheriff of Charity, Colorado
- GenresWesterns
184 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1989
5 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
260 books477 followersA professional writer for more than forty years, Yarbro has sold over eighty books, more than seventy works of short fiction, and more than three dozen essays, introductions, and reviews. She also composes serious music. Her first professional writing - in 1961-1962 - was as a playwright for a now long-defunct children's theater company. By the mid-60s she had switched to writing stories and hasn't stopped yet.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 7, 2013
This was an oddly frustrating book. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, much better known for her vampire novels, wrote a small number of westerns, and I wanted to see what she could do with the genre.
The central character was somewhat like a British version of Bat Masterson, using a baton in preference to a gun whenever possible. The central character and some of the others were very interesting, but oddly, several of the female characters were a bit cliched.
What really bothered me about the book was the weirdly sloppy history. For reasons I don't quite understand, Yarbro set it as taking place close to the Mexican American War, but then put in historical references which were not possible for that period, ranging from locations [that was years before Denver was founded, yet the city and the Denver Road come up in the story] to weapons [most of the guns in the story are from later periods]. Also, the story seems to take place right AFTER the war, from the dates given, but they characters all talk as if it's still going on.
Seemingly, the main reason for the early date is so that the central character can have served as one of the Bow Street Runners, the early London police force which was disbanded in 1839. Other than explaining his proficiency with a baton and experience as a "thief-taker," there seems to be little reason.
My impression is that she gave little thought to the way a small western town really worked, but just added things as plot points.
So, the book is worth reading for the characters, but the history is way off and a bit annoying.
The central character was somewhat like a British version of Bat Masterson, using a baton in preference to a gun whenever possible. The central character and some of the others were very interesting, but oddly, several of the female characters were a bit cliched.
What really bothered me about the book was the weirdly sloppy history. For reasons I don't quite understand, Yarbro set it as taking place close to the Mexican American War, but then put in historical references which were not possible for that period, ranging from locations [that was years before Denver was founded, yet the city and the Denver Road come up in the story] to weapons [most of the guns in the story are from later periods]. Also, the story seems to take place right AFTER the war, from the dates given, but they characters all talk as if it's still going on.
Seemingly, the main reason for the early date is so that the central character can have served as one of the Bow Street Runners, the early London police force which was disbanded in 1839. Other than explaining his proficiency with a baton and experience as a "thief-taker," there seems to be little reason.
My impression is that she gave little thought to the way a small western town really worked, but just added things as plot points.
So, the book is worth reading for the characters, but the history is way off and a bit annoying.
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November 19, 2008WYar
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews