Outlaw Gold

Description

186 pages
$12.95
ISBN 0-920663-47-8
DDC C813'.54

Author

Year

1996

Contributor

Reviewed by Matt Hartman

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Review

In the tradition of Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, and other great
chroniclers of the lawless West, Outlaw Gold has a style that gallops
along, a plot with all the right stuff (a gunfight, an ambush, a
good-hearted whore, a lawman), and an abundance of Canadian content.
What more could one ask for? There is no Dodge City, but there is Fort
Victoria; there is no Wyatt Earp, but there is Sergeant Decker of the
British Columbia Police. And there are fictionalizations of real
Canadians of the period—Sir James Douglas, governor of the territory,
Jim Yates, bartender extraordinaire, and Matthew Begbie, the “hanging
judge.”

The story is wonderfully straightforward: two desperadoes, Boone Helm
and Jack Gallagher, murder three prospectors in the Cariboo during the
1860s and steal their gold, then head into Victoria where they encounter
Sergeant Decker and his partner, Constable Montgomery. The plot features
a culminating chase through B.C.’s mountains, and even a twist to the
conclusion. Evans has written a page-turner, full of action and
adventure. Highly recommended.

Citation

Evans, Stan., “Outlaw Gold,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed March 29, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/1969.