The Outlaw and the Lady

Tod Larraby is an ex-Confederate guerrilla with an outlaw reputation. Tricked  by a crooked marshal into shooting a cheating gambler in a Colorado mining town, a challenging price is set for his freedom. Lord Buckhampton, a bull-headed British capitalist with investments in the state, needs Larraby to guide him to his delinquent son, who has vanished into the wildest parts of the Rockies with a half-breed whore from a Leadville bordello. Against Larraby's advice, Buckhampton insists they take along his lovely young second wife Julia. But Tod faces deception and treachery. Will he be able to complete his task and be free at last from prosecution?

The Outlaw and the Lady by Chap O'Keefe (Keith Chapman) was published originally in 1994 as part of Robert Hale's Black Horse Western line of hardcovers. It's newly available as an ebook and paperback and I think it's great some of these older books are being republished. In this case, the O'Keefe book is certainly deserving of finding a whole new audience of Western readers… Chapman's work continues to remind me of the hardboiled Westerns published by Gold Medal during the fifties and sixties. This one also has echoes of the early Lassiter novels by "Jack Slade" (really W. T. Ballard, Ben Haas, and Peter Germano, among others). The plot moves along at a suitably brisk pace, and the action scenes have a nice gritty feel to them. Larraby is a good hero, too, world-weary but not so full of angst that it leads to an excess of navel-gazing. As always, Chapman includes some effective twists and complications in the plot. The Outlaw and the Lady is lean, fast, and very entertaining. As usual when I finish a Chap O'Keefe book, I'm eager to read more.— James Reasoner, New York Times bestselling author
 

Chap O'Keefe has created some excellent characters… The book moves quickly from beginning to end, and has many action-packed scenes. Throughout the tale there is a growing attraction between Tod and Julia but this can't possibly become anything more than that can it? There are plenty of surprises along the way too … and a savage gang of outlaws add further hardship to the task of finding Lord  Buckhampton's son… Definitely worth picking up a copy, if you can find one.— Steve Myall at Western Fiction Review