Review of "On Dangerous Ground: Stories of Western Noir," edited by Ed Gorman, Dave Zeltserman and Martin H. Greenberg

 Review of

On Dangerous Ground: Stories of Western Noir, edited by Ed Gorman, Dave Zeltserman and Martin H. Greenberg, ISBN 9781587671920

Five out of five stars

Wide variety of stories in the western genre

 There are 21 stories in this collection and while all are based on the western genre, there is a wide variety. There is often the requisite gunplay, but in most cases the characters are fairly well developed, so the shoot-em-up action is not necessarily the primary plot event. The emphasis is on the people living their lives in a place where the social conditions are still wild and untamed.

My favorite in the collection is “The Old Ways,” by Ed Gorman. The plot is based on the clash of cultures between whites and Native Americans, told from the perspective of a Native American that works as a floater in a casino run by Madame Dupree. His job was to circulate among the card games using house money and use his holdout cards to win. A large percentage of his winnings went back to the house. The narrator grew up in poverty in Oklahoma, attending college for two years as the benefactor of a kindly white man. The bouncer at the casino was a massive black man that had also been educated by his master when he was a plantation slave. Very unusual story.

 While the western story has lost its popularity on the screen, it still lives strongly in print. This collection is a demonstration as to why that is the case. The stories here are short yet have great depth and have a point that is well made.

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