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The Floating Outfit #61
Return To Backsight
Dusty Fog, an ex-Confederate cavalryman, must find out who has put a price on his head, before a bounty hunter or hired gun is able to collect the reward
- GenresWesterns
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1969
26 people are currently reading
127 people want to read
About the author
J.T. Edson
183 books78 followersJohn Thomas Edson is an English writer of Westerns.
He was born in 1928.He was obsessed with Westerns from an early age and often "rewrote" cowboy movies that he had seen at the cinema. One thing that always intrigued him was the minutiae—how did the baddie's gun jam? What were the mechanics of cheating at cards? How did Westerners really dress and speak?
His writing was helped to develop by a schoolteacher who encouraged him. Now lives in Leicester, Leicestershire.[citation needed]
During his 20s and 30s, Edson served in His Majesty's Armed Forces for 12 years as a Dog Trainer. Cooped up in barracks for long periods, he devoured books by the great escapist writers (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert McCraig, Nelson C. Nye and Edgar Wallace). He also sat through hours of movies starring John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Errol Flynn and his all-time favourite, Audie Murphy.
His first appearance in print was "Hints On Self-Preservation when attacked by a War Dog" in the Osnabrück camp magazine Shufti in 1947. Acquiring a typewriter in the early 1950s and putting it to good use while posted to Hong Kong, by the time of his discharge he had written 10 Westerns, an early version of Bunduki and the first of the short detective-type stories starring Waco.
Upon leaving HM forces, JT won second prize (with Trail Boss) in the Western division of a Literary Competition run by Brown & Watson Ltd, which led to the publication of 46 novels with them, becoming a major earner for the company.
He had the need for supplementary income from time-to-time and also served as a postman, and the proprietor of a fish 'n' chip shop. Furthermore, he branched out as a writer and wrote five series of short stories (Dan Hollick, Dog Handler) for the Victor boys papers, and wrote the "box captions" for comic strips, which instilled discipline and the ability to convey maximum information with minimum words.
His writing career forged ahead when he joined Corgi Books in the late '60s, which gave JT exposure through a major publishing house, as well as the opportunity to branch out from the core Westerns into the Rockabye County, the science-fiction hero Bunduki and other series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._T._Edson
He was born in 1928.He was obsessed with Westerns from an early age and often "rewrote" cowboy movies that he had seen at the cinema. One thing that always intrigued him was the minutiae—how did the baddie's gun jam? What were the mechanics of cheating at cards? How did Westerners really dress and speak?
His writing was helped to develop by a schoolteacher who encouraged him. Now lives in Leicester, Leicestershire.[citation needed]
During his 20s and 30s, Edson served in His Majesty's Armed Forces for 12 years as a Dog Trainer. Cooped up in barracks for long periods, he devoured books by the great escapist writers (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert McCraig, Nelson C. Nye and Edgar Wallace). He also sat through hours of movies starring John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Errol Flynn and his all-time favourite, Audie Murphy.
His first appearance in print was "Hints On Self-Preservation when attacked by a War Dog" in the Osnabrück camp magazine Shufti in 1947. Acquiring a typewriter in the early 1950s and putting it to good use while posted to Hong Kong, by the time of his discharge he had written 10 Westerns, an early version of Bunduki and the first of the short detective-type stories starring Waco.
Upon leaving HM forces, JT won second prize (with Trail Boss) in the Western division of a Literary Competition run by Brown & Watson Ltd, which led to the publication of 46 novels with them, becoming a major earner for the company.
He had the need for supplementary income from time-to-time and also served as a postman, and the proprietor of a fish 'n' chip shop. Furthermore, he branched out as a writer and wrote five series of short stories (Dan Hollick, Dog Handler) for the Victor boys papers, and wrote the "box captions" for comic strips, which instilled discipline and the ability to convey maximum information with minimum words.
His writing career forged ahead when he joined Corgi Books in the late '60s, which gave JT exposure through a major publishing house, as well as the opportunity to branch out from the core Westerns into the Rockabye County, the science-fiction hero Bunduki and other series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._T._Edson
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 30, 2014
Knowing that this is the last adventure of the full floating outfit always causes me to read it with a heavy heart. Many of the supporting characters, including the main villain, were introduced earlier in the series in Wagons to Backsight and much of the plot hinges on events from it.
Putting a bounty on Dusty Fog's head might have seemed like a quick way to get rid of him, but it proves to be a dangerous one when the Ysabel Kid and Waco come looking for answers. In the meantime the an attack on an old friend sees Dusty and Mark filling in as the town's law while searching for an old enemy who is stirring up trouble. The conclusion to this story sets up Waco's spin-off Arizona Ranger series (specifically Waco's Badge) and the floating outfit is reduced to its three core members (Dusty, Mark and the Kid) for the final few books of the series.
Putting a bounty on Dusty Fog's head might have seemed like a quick way to get rid of him, but it proves to be a dangerous one when the Ysabel Kid and Waco come looking for answers. In the meantime the an attack on an old friend sees Dusty and Mark filling in as the town's law while searching for an old enemy who is stirring up trouble. The conclusion to this story sets up Waco's spin-off Arizona Ranger series (specifically Waco's Badge) and the floating outfit is reduced to its three core members (Dusty, Mark and the Kid) for the final few books of the series.
July 18, 2012
Edson appears to me to try to find a middle ground between the westerns of writers like Lamour and the 'bad boy' westerns (e.g., "Edge"). It's not a very good place to be.
This one's got some fairly gratuitous, though not graphic, sexual exploits in it. Although the relationships are kind of integral, but not essential, to the plot, the romantic complexity could have been achieved without the sex.
This isn't really worth the read.
This one's got some fairly gratuitous, though not graphic, sexual exploits in it. Although the relationships are kind of integral, but not essential, to the plot, the romantic complexity could have been achieved without the sex.
This isn't really worth the read.
July 10, 2012
Very good western. Well written. A must read for western fans.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews