'Nunslinger: Book 1' – Stark Holborn (Hodder and Stoughton)

If you looked through my Kindle Library, you'd look at me and say, “Dude, what on earth is that book doing there? That's not your thing at all...” I'd look you straight in the eye, smile ruefully and say, “It was 99p and the cover looked really cool...” This is one of the resons why I'm paying off a rather large overdraft.

With that in mind then, do you think the cover for 'Nunslinger' looks really cool? You can also probably guess how much it cost... I'd actually forgotten it was on my Kindle at all until yesterday when I was looking for something short and sweet to read on the way home from the hospital (I'm fine but getting a little bit tired of blood tests now). I also thought this blog could do with a day where it doesn't feature a 'Clickers' review but that's another story (hint: come back tomorrow for the final one). And the book is called 'Nunslinger'. 'Nunslinger'... What's not to like? There's a lot to like here and not a lot of room to like it in...

The year is 1864. Sister Thomas Josephine is on her way from St Louis, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. During the course of her journey, however, she'll find that her faith requires her to take off her wimple and pick up a gun. Innocent Visitandine nun Sister Thomas Josephine wants nothing more than an adventure-free journey out west. But adventure is what she'll get - and heaps of it - when she's taken hostage by a desperate outlaw on the Laramie Plains of Wyoming. Before long she'll find herself torn between two men, the handsome Union Army Lieutentant Thomas F. Carthy and the mysterious drifter Abraham C. Muir. And soon, one of these men will be staring down the barrel of her gun.

'Nunslinger: Book 1' is fifty two pages long and ends on a pretty big cliffhanger. There, I said it. The fact that it's 'Book 1' should send out a few clues, about the nature of the book, to start off with and of course there's going to be a cliffhanger, Holborn wants you to go straight out and buy Book 2 (or in my case, the complete series last night). Sorry, I was reading some Amazon reviews last night and people were upset at the rather abrupt ending. Me? It took me by surprise but I thought it was a refreshing approach and a hearkening back to the 'pulp' days when serials did just this in order to maintain their readership. Writing isn't just about telling a cool story, it's about selling it as well. From where I was sat, Holborn did both very well.

At the aforementioned fifty two pages long,'Nunslinger: Book 1 doesn't really have room to do anything other to introduce our main players and see where a trip aross the desert takes them (to the other side of course but apart from that), By the end of the book we know Sister Thomas Josephine, and the rest very well, and they all turn out to be characters with a little depth to them; characters that you know are going to open up more over the course of the series and where you want to see what else comes out.

There are a couple of moments of action as well that serve not only as spectacle but also to show us what Abraham and Sister Thomas Josephine are capable of when the chips are down. One of them knows full well what they're capable of while the other is yet to discover what doing the right thing can ultimately mean. Or are they both a 'bit of both'? It will be fun to find out.

Set against a gorgeously bleak backdrop that has 'frontier' written all over it, 'Nunslinger: Book 1' is an intriguing opener to what looks like a story worth following if it stays in this mould. It does end very abruptly so be warned if that's not your thing. Like I said, I've ordered the complete series so I'll let you know how it pans out.