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The Floating Outfit #40
The Lone Star Killers
Ole Devil Hardin's Floating Outfit isn't used to mixing with royalty. But now the Crown Prince Rudolph is in their territory, on a hunting expedition in Texas. And Dusty Fog, Mark Counter, the Ysabel Kid and Waco are assigned to keep an eye on him.
Trouble is, assassins are crawling out of the woodwork. But at least Beguinage--the most dangerous killer of them all--is out of the way. Or is he...?
Trouble is, assassins are crawling out of the woodwork. But at least Beguinage--the most dangerous killer of them all--is out of the way. Or is he...?
- GenresWesterns
181 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
J.T. Edson
183 books79 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 6, 2025
I only enjoyed this one due to the expected description of the different weapons carried by different characters. I even learned the Australian Bush People had their own version of the atlatl called a woomera.
January 24, 2014
This book, which was first published under the title Beguinage is Dead and more recently as Texas Killers, directly follows The Texas Assassin, originally published as Beguinage. Having been asked by the Governor of Texas to protect a visiting crown prince, Dusty Fog posed as a hired killer named 'Rapido Clint' and narrowly succeeded in killing the man believed to be the premier European assassin known as Beguinage. The book opens with the aftermath of the killing. While Dusty was undercover, the rest of the floating outfit met up with the prince and his party and set about getting him to town safely. A series of Beguinage style murders creates some confusion as does the arrival of an English Lady with a VERY familiar name (at this point according to the events of Decision for Dusty Fog Dusty and Freddie Woods should be married but JT largely ignores this for most of the series). Over time, even the frostiest member of the prince's party warms to the Texans and a good time is had by all, until treachery threatens from an unexpected source and only the Sherlock skills of Waco and the floating outfit's gun skill can beat a deadly trap.
August 9, 2015
J.T. Edson is a terrible writer, but some of his books are very entertaining. I usually love the books in the Floating Outfit series, but this one is a little boring. The author has a tendency to explain or lecture on details that are not always interesting. He also seems to have a fetish for girl-fights, which I find boring. Maybe I should have read "Texas Assassin"/"Beguinage" first, as this one is a continuation of that.
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July 20, 2008Another great Edson western.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews