Title: OVERLORDS
Auther: Matt Braun
Publisher: St. Martis Press
175 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10010
World War I has just ended and a new age is dawning in America. In California, the movie industry is just getting started. In the East, the "Roaring Twenties" with flappers, jazz, booze and organized crime was just getting into full swing. In the mid west and West, the past was hanging on, reluctant to loosen its grip. However, in the coastal Texas town of Galveston there could be found all the glamor, glitz and organized crime that was so prevelant in New York and Chicago.
Into this den of booze and sin rides a young Hollywood stuntman named Earl Durant. A stuntman, aspiring producer, and Veteran of the Great War, Durant has become the heir of his late uncles bank in the city of Galveston. Not wanting the bank, only wanting to sell and continue his career, Durante has a run in with one of the local big wigs and refuses to sell. William Magruder, the wealthy banker and owner of half of Galveston, takes offence and hires the gangster duo of Oliver Quinn and Dutch Voight to take care of the stuntman. Amidst this chaotic drama, the Texas Ranger Clint Stoner arives with his girlfriend to start an under cover sting to end the mobster rule of Galveston.
I know, this book isn't exactly a Western, but I liked the link it had with the old world and modern times. Set in a time that still remembered the likes of Wyatt Earp and Buffalo Bill as recent history, this story is based partly on the real life happenigs of Galveston. I especially liked the parts involving the Texas Rangers. Involving the old and new, this book helps show how the old lawmen evolved into a modern law agency.
