Book Review: Fire in the Wind

Book Review: 'Fire in the Wind'
(The Gringos, No. 3)

by J. D. Sandon

3 / 5 Stars

‘Fire in the Wind’ (Gringos No. 3, 173 pp) was published in the UK in 1979 by Mayflower / Granada. The cover artist is Richard Clifton-Dey.

According to the ‘Western Fiction Review’ website, ‘J. D. Sandon’ was the house name used by two writers, Angus Wells and John Harvey, for the UK paperback publisher Mayflower / Granada.

 

Ultimately, ten ‘Gringos’ novels were published; for many of these, used copies have very high asking prices. I was fortunate to find a beat-up copy of ‘Fire in the Wind’ for a couple of dollars.

Being unfamiliar with the other titles in the series wasn’t much of a handicap in reading ‘Fire in the Wind’, as the franchise is stylistically derived from the 1969 Sam Peckinpah film The Wild Bunch. If you've ever seen The Wild Bunch, then you'll be familiar with the premise of The Gringos.

The Gringos are comprised of four American soldiers-of-fortune: Cade Onslow (a stand-in for William Holden’s ‘Pike Bishop’ character from The Wild Bunch), Jonas Strong (a stand-in for Jim Brown from the 1969 movie 100 Rifles), Jamie Durham (‘The Kid’; explosives expert and heroin addict) and Yates McCloud (amoral, unrepentant Rebel).

As ‘Fire’ opens, it’s 1914, and our four antiheros are working for Pancho Villa in his campaign – conducted in concert with Alvaro Obregon, and Emiliano Zapata – to invade Mexico City and overthrow the government of Victoriano Huerta. It’s revolutionary conflict at its bloodiest, and the Gringos are doing their part by spearheading an assault on the Federale redoubt at 'Medicino'.

Without giving away spoilers, ‘Fire in the Wind’ deals with the adventures – and misadventures – of the Gringos as they embark on additional covert missions to sabotage government forces in Northern Mexico. Along the way they will have to confront their internal dissensions, attempted assassination at the hands of the renegade American arms dealer Hiram Bender, and the intrusion of a uniquely 20th century military asset…….leading to a do-or-die moment upon which rests the fate of the entire revolution………. 

I finished ‘Fire in the Wind’ thinking that it was a well-written novel that takes advantage of its derivation from The Wild Bunch, and the film’s placement in Revolutionary Mexico, to do something a bit different from the more 'traditional' western setting of the American west in the 19th century. However, I can’t say that I found ‘Fire’ to be an engrossing novel, perhaps because I was well aware that the four antiheroes were going to be appearing in future series installments, and this tended to undercut any narrative tension arising from the mayhem that threatens our antiheroes in the pages of ‘Fire’. 

Summing up, ‘Fire in the Wind’ left me sufficiently interested to read the other novels in the series, but not if so doing requires a hefty expenditure. For me, the ‘Gringos’ series will be an impulse buy, and not a dedicated pursuit.