She had a price on her head--and two colts in her hands. When her father is murdered, Danielle Strange takes the revenge trail to Missouri through a frontier of hell. Abridged.
Ralph Compton (April 11, 1934—September 16, 1998) was an American writer of western fiction.
A native of St. Clair County, Alabama, Compton began his writing career with a notable work, The Goodnight Trail, which was chosen as a finalist for the Western Writers of America "Medicine Pipe Bearer Award" bestowed upon the "Best Debut Novel". He was also the author of the Sundown Rider series and the Border Empire series. In the last decade of his life, he authored more than two dozen novels, some of which made it onto the USA Today bestseller list for fiction.
Ralph Compton died in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 64. Since his passing, Signet Books has continued the author's legacy, releasing new novels, written by authors such as Joseph A. West and David Robbins, under Compton's byline.
It was the late author Bill Crider, with his 'Outrage at Blanco' novel that made me love revenge stories so much and in away revenge stories for me will always be a tribute to him.
Basically a re-read, plucked out of my library, have always liked Ralph Compton's writing, his Danny Duggin series probably is my favorite, he has a tough as nails teenage girl who disguises herself as a boy, never misses a beat with or mixes up the narrative with her, as she goes on the vengeance trail seeking revenge on a list of outlaw's who hung her father and she promised on her daddy's grave, she would get everyone of them.
Riders of Judgement, is the 3rd book in the Danny Duggin series. While the late Ralph Compton wrote a rough outline for the book, it was written by Ralph Cotton and felt was realistic, believable, they put you in the pages, your riding along with Danny Duggin on the vengeance trail.
Let me mention that Ralph Cotton's style of writing at times, reminded me of the late author Jory Sherman with descriptive details, you visualize where the story happens, yet the gunfighting parts are simply told and the trickery that intertwined in ending.
With this one, the vengeance trail gets a little harder for Danny, Jeb and Tim, mix in a US Federal Marshall who is pursuing them, a bounty, bounty hunters, the Delmano's, mercenaries, your in for a entertaining read and one you'll need to read too know the rest.
It's not a standalone novel, you need to start with the first book 'Death Rides A Chestnut Mare' for the storyline to make sense. With the COVID-19 numbers back on the rise, with people back in self quarantine definitely would recommend Ralph Compton to get lost in.
Forget your worries! What's better than a good verse evil themed book, even better a vengeance trail themed series read and who knows you might find yourself a fan of one of the smallest yet the loyalest genre in reading. Being the Western genre.
The first three titles in this series, have been re-issued, as the publisher Berkley part of the Penguin Group (USA) LLC, has has brought back the a Ralph Compton Western books, that continue his series by other authors and gives writer credit as the author. Which I like, it enables the reader to skip titles from writer's they don't like and discover new author to read.
This is the apex of (what i thought was a ) trilogy and it is an amazing journey. A slow story at times with a lot of ground cover and an ending that's satisfying (or so I thought...). Step up into the saddle with Death Rides a Chestnut Mare and then slide out with Riders of Judgment. Brilliant story, strong and thorough characters, unexpected twists, humour and realism. Terrific story, fantastic western.
The Strange kids are back in "Riders of Judgement" (2001), hunting down Saul Delmano, the last of those murderous outlaws who killed their father in a prior book. Delmano wasn't the most accomplished, deadly, or capable of the killers, but he was the shiftiest and sneakiest and now he has escaped into Mexico and put a bounty of his own on Danny/Danielle Strange/Duggin so there are some enterprising outlaws hoping to make their own sinister payday.
This third story in the series builds up the now-essential Marshall McCord character to fun effect.
If you are looking into this book and asking if it is essential to read the first two in the series, I'm actually on the fence. I think the payoff means more having read the first two, but I'll say Compton does a good job of not dwelling too much on the backstory and summarizing the current situation so it is probably a fun read for modern westerns fans without having read the first two.
Verdict: A decent finish to the Danny Duggin series (I see now there’s a fourth book, but this one works as a finale), suffering from a lot of the issues that plagued the first two but building on and wrapping up the lingering threads to a nice conclusion.
Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good) movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
"if I could, I'd have actually rated this book 3.5 stars instead of 4. It had great moments and a satisfying ending, but didn't hold my attention the way a climactic book in a series ought to have done. Too many ancilary characters to keep track of. I really wish there'd been more than one outlaw left on that list. Might have made the story seem less padded. At any rate, I think this is the first time I've ever found the middle book in a trilogy to be the best. (Yeah, for me, even in Star Wars, my favorite is Return of the Jedi.) Still, this does bring the story to a satisfactory close, so I do recommend it. I just wish I could recommend it more highly.
I haven't a series that I've enjoyed as much as this one in a while. I went into this series with low expectations and didn't enjoy every part of it, but the story itself was a good one. It had it's standard tropes, but with a twist and had a lot less language and references than most. I know GA hasn't done the next one, so I wonder if I'll actually listen to the original content, but am hoping GA will get to it.
Good story. “Danny Duggin” is off to kill one more outlaw who killed her pa. Has her brothers along this time even if they do get separated at one time. She also has a Marshall McCord helping her out in this story. It was fast paced enough to interest me. It also isn’t the end of “Danny Duggin” there is still a fourth book called Death along the Cimarron.
In her guise as “Danny Duggin,” Danielle Strange has spent the past two years hunting down the outlaws who murdered her father. Reunited with her brothers, the twins Tim and Jed, she plans to take her war across the border into Mexico—unaware she's being pursued by a U.S. federal marshall....
This book was total $5 Walmart shelf material. I'll admit, I was entertained; it was fun, distracting, and utterly predictable. It was a fun romp in the Wild West which didn't do anything original and holds no real lasting value. 2.5/5 Stars
Riders of Judgment is the third in the "Danny Duggin" series. The first two book are Death Rides a Chestnut Mare and the second is The Shadow of a Noose. The trilogy is about Danielle Duggin, the crack shot daughter of a master gunsmith who was gunned down by a ruthless gang led by Saul Delmano, the rich and spoiled son of a man who has led his own gang for decades.
Danielle transforms into "Danny" and starts to hunt down the 10 men in the gang that killed her father. She has a list of names and is slowly working her way through it, marking them off as she kills them. She is joined by her twin brothers in her second book. In the third book they are down to one last name: Saul Delmano...
Despite having Ralph Compton's name in giant letters on the cover, small print actually says "A Ralph Compton novel by Ralph Cotton".
This is the third and final book in a series, although there's a brief recap so it's not essential to have read the other two.
It's another "looking for the man who shot my pa" type novel, so no real surprises as you go through. Overall it's a decent read to pass the time with.
The last in a trilogy about vengence. Don't give away your Louis LaAmour. Ralph Compton can't hold a candle to the master.
In the three books the main character, in looking to find and seek justice on 10 outlaws, must have killed 200 individuals. Probably an exaggeration, but not much of one.
Nice wrap up to a 3 book series, wish the finish was a bit longer left you feeling like it was rushed. But it took me 4 years to find this book so I could read it so I am pretty pleased with the over all series.
Good way to end a western series with a good ole fashioned shoot out, lol. But you really wonder what happens to everyone at the end.... Does Danielle ever find that someone of her very own??? We'll never know.
good book. says #3 so have to check and see what other books are in series. One more western to read before taking back to the library then a month or two break from westerns. Want find some books on Tombstone fiction and non-fiction. Any suggestions-- plz pass my way
When Danny's brothers join her, the story gets better but only because the brothers come across the page better. Not good enough to override the disappointment in the first two.