A Novel by Paul Lederer Writing as C.J. Sommers, Entitled "Climax"

Giles Frost is an easy-going type of cowboy and accepts the world as it is. He is just trying to live his life without too much interference from the world around him, and right now he is the Marshal in the crummy little desert town of Climax. Frost enjoys his work and daily routine of checking the doors of the businesses, what few there are, along his walks around the gray wood and peeling paint points of interest. It has been this way for the three years he has been Town Marshal. This morning he stops in to say howdy to the stable owner, who tells him that he is going to have to divvy up the few dollars for keeping his horse from now on, as the town decided it doesn't have the money. Nothing ever happens in Climax, or not much in the way of lawbreaking, and that night he gets shot on his rounds.

When he wakes up, he is in the home of Clara Finch, who tells him, "I don't like you, Giles Frost,"
and the Mayor comes by to tell him he's been fired from being the Town Marshal, "The town can't afford it."

Well, there was much more going on that he didn't know about and as soon as he feels recovered enough, he draws all his money out of the bank and heads out to talk to the one friend that may give him a job or help him out, Anson Weaver, owner of the Liberty Bell Ranch. He saved Weaver's life a few years' back. Weaver has a pretty daughter and a son who wants to go to medical school in St. Louis to find out how he can save his father who is dying from the lung disease. Frost feels a tingle in his heart for Ada, the daughter. And the plot thickens as Frost gets beat up by some of Weaver's men in the dark and ends up in a bed in the spare room with Ada looking out for him. Rumors are floating that some outlaws want to take over the town of Climax and use it for their headquarters. On the way out of Climax he met a man named Tate, Barrett Tate, a Sheriff looking for one Charles Mansir for murder in Winona.

I've told you too much already, but Frost gets shot again down by the Sabine Creek, not mortally, but bad and in a couple of days didn't feel well enough, but heads for Bisbee. He runs into another lawman, Deputy Sheriff, Orlando Marsh, who is looking for his boss, Barrett Tate. Marsh thought maybe something had happened to him because he hadn't returned to Winona.

Frost had been shot twice and beat up once and wasn't looking for anything but a place to get away from it all for a while, but Marsh talks him into riding into Climax to look for Tate.

Darn! There I go again telling the story instead of reviewing it. Anyway, coming up is a big night battle for Climax against all the outlaws who had gathered to join up with that greedy Charles Mansir. Does Frost get shot again? Or, beat up? Or, who wins or loses? Ada Weaver or Clara Finch?The story progresses to a fine ending that surprised me. Plenty of action, mystery, suspense, and humor in this engrossing tale of the Old West.

This was an e-book available from Amazon by C. J. Sommers (Paul Lederer), who has written several Westerns including Tecumseh and the Indian Heritage series. He is originally from Texas.
Published by Open Road Integrated Media. Around 120 pages.