BENEDICT AND BRAZOS

# 17 : The Buzzard Breed

By E. Jefferson Clay

Bold Venture Press

111 pgs.

 

Bold Venture Press continues reprinting one of the finest western series ever produced, the Benedict and Brazos stories. Duke Benedict is a veteran Union officer while Hank Brazos a former Confederate sergeant. Through a strange bizarre incident at the end of the Civil War, the two end up as partners obsessed with hunting down a vicious outlaw name Bo Rangle and his gang. Rangle stole a shipment of army gold and in the process murdered men who had served with Benedict and Brazos. Each new book is the series is part of this longer chase saga.   

In # 17, “The Buzzard Breed,” the two contentious saddle partners arrive in the town of Galloway. Only Brazos is brought there in chains, having been picked up on the trail by the sheriff for cattle rustling. Now it is up to Benedict to find and capture the real rustlers and free the rowdy Texan. Along the way, the suave Yankee discovers a conspiracy to steal a nearby cattle ranch from a young woman. It involves not only the cattle thieves but a local saloon owner. A conspiracy responsible for the murder of the rancher’s father.  

Once again, E. Jefferson Clay offers up a fast paced, often times humorous, but never dull, cowboy yarn in the grand classic tradition of the early Max Brand and Zane Gray tales. In the end, there’s just no stopping Benedict and Brazos. These books are addictive.