Black Hats

by David Case

Frank Wormwood and John Cremony had a friendship as tough as weathered leather, 'til a range war and a vengeful woman steeped between them.

They'd fought side by side with the powder smoke so thick they could hardly see the men they were shooting. Then Wormwood fell in love. Next thing he knew, he was in jail for shooting the man who'd had Caroline Beauchamp's brother lynched. Cremony swore he'd fight for Wormwood with cunning and bullets. Then Caroline got to him and he swore he'd gun down his best friend.

255 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1981

About the author

David Case (1937-2018) was born in upstate New York. Since the early 1960s he lived in London, as well as spending time in Greece and Spain. His acclaimed collection The Cell: Three Tales of Horror appeared in 1969, and it was followed by the novels Fengriffen: A Chilling Tale, Wolf Tracks, and The Third Grave. His other collections include Brotherly Love and Other Tales of Trust and Knowledge, Pelican Cay & Other Disquieting Tales, and an omnibus volume in the 'Masters of the Weird Tale' series from Centipede Press. In recent years, his selected short horror fiction has been reprinted by Valancourt Books as The Cell & Other Transmorphic Tales and Fengriffen & Other Gothic Tales.

A regular contributor to the legendary Pan Book of Horror Stories series during the early 1970s, as well as a handful of westerns and pseudonymous porn novels, his powerful zombie novella “Pelican Cay” in Dark Terrors 5 was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 2001.

(Bio adapted from Valancourt Books)

Reviews

[Hugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another cracking Case western, filled with period detail, classic vernacular, and characters on the edge of morality, compromised by circumstances or allegiances, in a multilayered story of how one spark can start a fire no one can keep ahead of. Up to the last page, no real clue how this one was going to pan out.