Easy Company and the Medicine Gun (Easy Company #2) by John Wesley Howard (Stephen Winston)

Stephen Winston takes over the reins from Lou Cameron to pen this second book in the 31-book Easy Company series. He would go on to write at least five more.

Less than a year after the events of Little Bighorn, Easy Company continues its mission of maintaining a shaky peace in the region. They are receiving new recruits due to some recent attrition and this novel’s plot centers around those characters although the regulars also get in on some good action.  I get the feeling there might be a lot of new recruits necessary for this company of mounted infantry, (don’t dare call them cavalry) based on the body count in this outing alone.

A Gatling gun (known as a medicine gun to the Indians because of its ability to deal out rapid “big medicine”) has been stolen before it can complete its journey to a reservation in the North. The crew has been slaughtered and it appears the notorious Racing Elk and his band are responsible. As new clues come to light, different groups of Easy Company, including the new recruits hit the trail in pursuit, each experiencing their own separate types of adventure.

I’m not sure if it’s because of a different author from book one or if it’s due to the demands of the publisher but this entry kicks up the adult content a notch or two. Some of it is quite imaginative. But the other parts are equally imaginative, including the gunfights, camp politics, and the new characters’ backgrounds. It all makes for another solid entry in the series. Book three is written by Kenneth Bjorgum, another author in the stable behind the “John Wesley Howard” pseudonym. I’m curious to see what his style will bring to these characters.

Easy Company and the Suicide Boys by John Wesley Howard

On the high plains of Wyoming Territory in the 1870’s sits Outpost Number Nine. It’s home to the fictional “Easy Company”, a unit of mounted infantry (don’t call them cavalry) in the days after Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer lost at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Easy Company is charged with maintaining the fragile peace with the Indian tribes in the area but also stand ready to fight, should that action be called for.

This is the first novel in the Easy Company series of 31 westerns written by a number of authors using the John Wesley Howard pseudonym. This time (and apparently the only time), the author is Lou Cameron, the author who brought us 'Longarm' as well as the 'Renegade' series and the 'Stringer' series among many others. The “suicide boys” of the book’s title refer to a group of young, untested, would-be Indian warriors out to prove their bravery, and their actions in the novel lead to conflicts with the outpost.

I thoroughly enjoyed this first book in the series.  The main characters of Easy Company, including the commander, his officers, 1st Sergeant, and a handful of enlisted men are all introduced as the story unfolds, as are the various leaders of the Indian tribes. An additional source of conflict arrives in the form of an IG inspector, a by-the-book man who struggles to understand why Easy Company finds it necessary to interpret the regulations creatively from time to time in order to preserve the peace.

If this first book is an indication of the quality of the entire series…well, I only have 30 more to read and I’ll enjoy each one of them.