Piccadilly Publishing

 

   

SUNDANCE by JOHN BENTEEN

The eponymous character, Jim Sundance, is a half-white, half-Cheyenne adventurer. When we first meet him he's in his 30's, already a man who has roamed and fought across the length and breadth of the U.S., moving between the worlds of the white man and the Indian. The timeframe for the book is sometime a few months after the Battle of Washita River, putting the book most likely in the late spring or early summer of 1869.

Sundance is your typical Benteen hero: tall, broad-shouldered, with a slim waist and a lean, powerful build. He has the complexion and features of a Cheyenne Indian, but his hair is a bright golden blond, a gift from his English father. Sundance received his name - his Indian name - after participating in the Sun Dance ritual, The description given of Sundance's experience is one of the more extreme, although it's got nothing on the movie A Man Called Horse, which has a really graphic Sun Dance ritual scene. I've actually attended a Sioux Sun Dance, and even back in the 90's, there was some ritual body piercing going on, although very rare.

On top of his unusual heritage, Sundance carries an unusual arsenal. In typical Benteen fashion, his main character is very deliberately armed with an assortment of weapons from both cultures. Sundance carries a Navy Colt and a Henry repeating rifle, as well as a Bowie knife with a fourteen-inch blade and a hand guard for knife-fighting. In addition, he carries a steel-bladed tomahawk, as well as a Cheyenne dog soldier's war shield and a bow, along with a quiver of thirty flint-headed arrows. Benteen goes to great length to note that Sundance prefers flint tips to steel, claiming that they deliver a more grievous wound, and that with the bow Sundance could kill a man at four hundred yards, or put an arrow through a buffalo.

Over the course of the novel Sundance puts every weapon in his arsenal to use, another Benteen trait, and it is interesting to see how Sundance typically uses the white man's weapons for "every day carry", but when he really means business, he tends to favor his more traditional arsenal.

Overall, this is an excellent western series. Sundance is a fascinating character, a mix of some standard Western themes with Benteen's own unique style laid over. The action is fast and violent, the level of detail extraordinary.

© Jack Badelaire
John Benteen wrote the first sixteen books in the series, Peter Mcurtin (amongst others) took over. We are publishing only those written by McCurtin and can be found here.

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Published January 01, 2017

    16: GUN BELT

A range war was brewing, and even though Sundance wanted no part of it, fate dealt him in anyway. But right from the start, the odds were stacked against him.

To begin with, there was the vicious land baron Lem Barkalow and his hired killer, Beecher Strawn. Then there was Col Garvey and his wild bunch - Ear-cutter Jack, who had killed at least thirty men and taken an ear from each victim, dried it, and strung it on a necklace he wore draped around his neck; Weasel - tall, unbelievably slim, almost chinless, his eyes a strange red-glinting hue and as blood-thirsty as his namesake; Chico Lopez, the artist with the knife; Garth, the powder-man, who could take a can of Hercules, or this new-fangled dynamite, and open any safe anybody had ever built.

But Sundance didn't care about the odds. He was going to play the game right down to the last, bloody hand.


Published November 01, 2016

    15: SILENT ENEMY

Both the Indians and the U.S. Cavalry were being victimized. A lone crazed Cheyenne was on a personal warpath against both sides and neither brigades of bluecoats nor tribes of braves could end his reign of terror. They needed to pit one man against one crazed Indian.
That man was Sundance.


Published September 01, 2016
    14: RIDING SHOTGUN

Half-breed Jim Sundance rode right into the middle of the bloodiest feud in Arizona. Coffin City was split between gunfighter Tulso Dart and the murderous Cable clan. The Cables were backed by the crooked sheriff—Tulso Dart by a dying killer named Doc Ramsey. Sundance had his reasons for being there, but before it was over a lot of men would die in the dust.


Published July 01, 2016
    13: BLOOD ON THE PRAIRIE

Half English, half-Cheyenne Indian, Sundance was a half-breed who took on jobs no one else would handle, a killer who never missed. And he charged plenty for his services. But when his old friend George Crook asked Sundance to step into the most explosive situation of his career, as a personal favor, Sundance agreed. He was the only man alive who could keep the Sioux nation from going on the warpath—and Russia from going to war with America. Sundance was the best … but just maybe this time out the job was too much even for him!


Published May 01, 2016
    12: RUN FOR COVER

The town of Bootstrap, Nevada, was being terrorized by a killer they called the Big Fifty Sniper. Folks had a hunch it had something to do with the Lost Pistol silver mine, but no one knew for sure. Then Sundance, the half-breed professional gunman, rode into town. He was just in time to save young Billy Mercer from a hangman's knot. Furthermore, he was also willing to chase the sniper down ... for a price. There was no job too touch for Sundance, if the price was right.


Published March 01, 2016
    11:WAR PARTY

Marauding Comanches had kidnapped beautiful Virginia Stevens. Her uncle would pay anything to get her back, and he knew Sundance was the only man who could bring it off.

Not only did Sundance have the Comanches to contend with–he also had to beat the Comancheros to the girl. Sundance dyed his blond hair dark brown and made peace with his half-brothers before taking Virginia from them. She fought rescue for a while, but one night with Sundance in the warmth of his blanket softened her resistance.


Published January 01, 2016
    10: THE GHOST DANCERS

Sundance was called in to try to stop a crazed white-hating Indian from turning the entire western frontier into a bloody no-man's land. The fanatic Indian had organized the Ghost Dancers, a nation of Indians gathered from every tribe from Canada to the Mexican border.

Driven by the belief that no bullets could harm them as long as they were under the protection of the Great Spirit, they set out to massacre every white man on the plains. It was Sundance's job to do the impossible and bring peace before it was too late for everyone.


Published November 01, 2015
    9: THE PISTOLEROS

The Indian Ring's sticky-fingered Washington politicians and their local bully boys's were looting millions of dollars that should have gone to the reservations, to buy food, blankets, supplies. They knew Sundance was gunning for them, so they tried to make him run.

That was about the worst mistake they could make, because the big, silent man with the yellow hair and the Cheyenne face runs from no man. A natural killer with six-gun, rifle, bow, knife, tomahawk, Sundance works for money but for him troubleshooting is more than a profession. It's a way of life.


Published September 01, 2015
    8: BRING ME HIS SCALP!

Someone wanted Sundance dead, and they wanted it bad enough to pay eight hard cases to trail him into the hell-hot Texas desert and risk their lives for one yellow scalp. There was only one way for Sundance to save himself-and that was kill them all ... and that's what he did.

But plenty more bodies would litter Sundance's trail before he could discover the identities of the men behind the mysterious 'S & S Concern'. Then there came a final reckoning, with the fate of the entire Indian Nation depending on the outcome!


Published June 01, 2015
    7: THE WILD STALLIONS

The Appaloosa horses bred by Chief Joseph's Nez Perce Indians were the finest anywhere. That's why the Army wanted to get its hands on the herd so it could breed up top-quality remounts and ride the Indians down even easier. To do it, they hired a sadistic horse-trader named Luke Drury.
There was just one problem. Jim Sundance had no intention of letting Drury or the Army get their hands on the Appaloosas. Instead he planned to sell them to an English aristocrat and have them taken out of the country. But Drury played rough ... up to and including cold-blooded murder. So now it became a race against time. Hunted every step of the way, Sundance, and the beautiful Lady Bucknell, had to get the horses to the relative safety of Mormon country, and then get them shipped out to England. But they were going to fight on their hands - one that could only end in wholesale slaughter!


Published March 01, 2015
    6: THE BRONCO TRAIL

BRING IN GERONIMO!

They were called the Tucson Ring, and they were a group of greedy businessmen who were getting fat on keeping the Indian Wars alive in Arizona Territory. One of their plans was to keep Geronimo on the loose by supplying him with whiskey and ammunition.

But General George Crook had a plan to stop them, and Jim Sundance was the most important part of it. His orders - to go to Arizona, find out who was selling whiskey and guns to Geronimo, stop them any way possible - and bring Geronimo in for good. It was a tall order. But if anyone could bring it off, it was the man they called Sundance.


Published November 01, 2014
    5: TAPS AT LITTLE BIGHORN

It was the fall of 1875 and all the Plains tribes were at peace. But then General Custer found gold in the Black Hills and set out to stir up a war to save his prestige. Jim Sundance's hatred for Custer was like a burning flame. He vowed to have his revenge after being imprisoned for four months by the general - and if he did Custer would never leave Little Big Horn alive.


Published July 01, 2014
    4: DEATH IN THE LAVA

Jim Sundance, half-white, half-Cheyenne gunslinger found himself hip-deep in the big strike that had hit the Dakota Territory. A money-hungry head of a band of buffalo hunters swore he would grab the lion's share of the loot. Before Sundance faced him in a showdown, he would tangle with the conceited General George A. Custer, a kill-crazy Sioux medicine man and Lucille, the beautiful, hot-blooded boss of the Hills' wildest saloon.


Published March 01, 2014
    3: DAKOTA TERRITORY

Jim Sundance, half-white, half-Cheyenne gunslinger found himself hip-deep in the big strike that had hit the Dakota Territory. A money-hungry head of a band of buffalo hunters swore he would grab the lion's share of the loot. Before Sundance faced him in a showdown, he would tangle with the conceited General George A. Custer, a kill-crazy Sioux medicine man and Lucille, the beautiful, hot-blooded boss of the Hills' wildest saloon.


Published November 01, 2013
    2: DEAD MAN'S CANYON

Sundance, the professional fighting man of the plains and the Baron from the Austrian Court made a deal. For $35,000 the big man with the bronzed face and the yellow hair would take the nobleman into deadly Apache territory to search for Emperor Maximilian of Mexico's priceless treasure of lost jewels.

Sundance, the professional fighting man of the plains and the Baron from the Austrian Court made a deal. Before it was over, Sundance would meet Cochise, chief of the Chiricauhuas, and together with a luscious young woman, face his closest crapshoot with death. And a score of men's bones would bleach on the floor of Dead Man's Canyon.

   


Published May 01, 2013

    1: OVERKILL

They called him Sundance. A big man with the bronzed face of a Cheyenne and a mane of yellow hair. He had ranged from Canada to Mexico, from the Mississippi to the Shining Mountains and west to the Pacific. He could take any man apart with rifle, pistol, knife - or Indian-style with bow, arrows, lance and tomahawk. He was a professional fighting man and no job was too tough if the price was right.

So when a rich banker met his price of $10,000 to rescue his daughter from the Cheyenne - Sundance bought it. He didn't know that before it was over he would have to take on a gang of vicious renegades, part of Custer's Seventh Cavalry and a hot-blooded eastern woman.

First in the exciting Western series written by one of America's best-loved writers.

 

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All rights reserved 2012
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This website is the property of Piccadilly Publishing
All rights reserved 2012
For information, please contact the webmaster