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In the dark ridges of a western state, evil manifests itself in the form of a hardcase who’s on a mission to make several men suffer for the atrocities they heaped upon a young Indian maiden fifteen years ago. He starts by making each man watch as he skins alive the woman who means the most to him. Then he destroys everything else they value.
Carlin Travers, on the other hand, spends his life bringing men in to face charges—and he only kills when he’s given no other choice. Haunted by an incident that happened when he was in his teens, he tries to make up for being unable to change the fate of a beautiful Ute girl. He hasn’t been back to Sundown, Colorado, for years, but when he gets a telegram from a man he used to ride the trail with, he heads back to help his old friend.
Travers soon learns who’s responsible for the killings, but he has no proof, and he can’t bring himself to shoot a man in cold blood—not even to save the lives of future victims. It’s a dilemma, for sure, and he’s up against a hardcase with no soul, who thinks he’s justified in his revenge.
Blood Creek is one of those novels that, while reading it, I got so involved with the characters that I started talking to them—or, in this case, yelling. (Come on! You’re getting the crap beat out of you! Do something!). I eventually became amused by the situation, understanding that the beatings were necessary in order for Travers to grow and stand his ground—still, though, the poor guy!
Though the action isn’t overly graphic, you’ll still wince at some of the brutality carried out (especially the skinning), which will keep you wide-eyed with horror and eager to keep on reading, to see if the bad guy gets what’s coming to him. And you’ll dearly hope he does!
I also appreciate how author Howard Hopkins deals with subject matter such as insanity in a time period when it wasn’t fully understood. In Blood Creek, his imagination opens up and takes readers into the scary mind of an Old West psychopath, creating an interesting plot that you’ll have no wish to run from.
Plenty of fight scenes wrapped around a sadistic crime of mythic proportions make Blood Creek a fantastic read. Don’t think you’ll enjoy a Western? Well, then you haven’t tried Howard Hopkins yet. No one does quite it like Hopkins—or as well.
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