Death Wears A Star

by Andrew McBride

The Tengen brothers planned to make themselves all the law there was in Coffin Creek and the surrounding Cochise County. Then the whole south east corner of Arizona would be theirs to plunder at will. Behind the tin stars they wore, the brothers were killers, pure and simple... But they'd reckoned without Calvin Taylor, former Indian scout turned Wells Fargo agent. Taylor would bring real law and order to the town, even if he had to do it at the point of a gun. The result was an explosion of violence and killing. Blood ran on the streets of Coffin Creek and a twisted trail of vengeance led high into the mountains of Apache country.

137 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 3, 2001

About the author

ANDREW McBRIDE has written 9 critically-acclaimed western novels set in Arizona and New Mexico in the 1870s and 1880s, with the same central character CALVIN TAYLOR. They are CANYON OF THE DEAD, DEATH WEARS A STAR, DEATH SONG, THE ARIZONA KID, SHADOW MAN, THE PEACEMAKER, COYOTE’S PEOPLE, CIMARRÓN and MEXICAN SUNSET. All but CIMARRÓN are available as kindles. MEXICAN SUNSET is available as a kindle and a paperbck, CIMARRÓN was a finalist in the 2023 NEW MEXICO-ARIZONA BOOK AWARDS . Historical figures - the Apache chief COCHISE and BILLY THE KID and WYATT EARP in fictionalised form - feature.
McBride’s work has been praised by acclaimed, award-winning novelists. W. MICHAEL FARMER calls CIMARRÓN ‘Superlative… a classic western.’ LUCIA ROBSON called COYOTE’S PEOPLE an 'outstanding novel.' Other reviewers have called his work 'western fiction at its best!' 'superb' and 'quietly remarkable.' RALPH COTTON calls Andrew McBride ‘among the top Old West storytellers.'
ABOUT ANDREW McBRIDE:
Andrew McBride lives in Brighton, England.
Find Andrew McBride on FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/Andrew-McBri...
On TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/andrewmcbride21
Read his blogs here: ANDREW McBRIDE AUTHOR BLOG:
http://andrewmcbrideauthor.blogspot.

Reviews

[Martha Peebles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Death wears a star

Good book. Lot of action.Enjoyed reading it thank you for a great read. Look forward to more books by Andrew McBride.

[Lorrie Farrelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2023
Author Andrew McBride brings us another action-packed episode in the wild life of the wonderfully conflicted Calvin Taylor, former army scout, reluctant gunslinger, and now Wells Fargo detective. Taylor’s stubborn courage, loyalty, and innate sense of justice can’t help but land him, once again, in a whole passel of trouble.

This time, Taylor finds himself in a sort of doppelgänger, alternate universe version of the famous hostilities between the Earp brothers with their pal Doc Holliday and their enemies, the Clanton and McLaury brothers, that culminated in the infamous Gunfight at the OK Corral. In Death Wears a Star, Tombstone becomes Coffin Creek, the Earps become the Tengen brothers, Doc Holliday the vicious consumptive Doc Zale, and Taylor’s friend Dave McClennan and his gone-astray brother Pete step into the shoes of the ill-fated McLaurys. In this world, though, there is no difference between the law and the lawless. In fact, the badges they wear only make very dangerous men even more corrupt and lethal.

I found this novel to be a lot of fun to read. The story is both familiar and surprising, and so full of action and adventure that I was turning pages as fast as I could read, wondering how in the world Taylor was going to get out of one desperate scrape after another. Will he ever discover who was behind the vicious murder of the stagecoach shotgun guard? Of course he will, but the odds of his surviving long enough to bring the culprits to justice get worse by the minute!

Andrew McBride never disappoints. He not only moves the story along like a runaway stage, but he writes wonderful characters and authentic settings. The reader can all but smell the dust and sagebrush and hear the zing of bullets whizzing past. Highly recommended!