Fred Blosser, who I’m sure you recognize as one of the commentators on this blog, wrote this nifty story that’s a mix of Robert E. Howard pastiche with a dollop of H. P. Lovecraft.

Although Robert E. Howard is best known for his Conan the Barbarian stories, he also wrote plenty of stories in various genres. I reviewed Howard’s comic western stories, Heroes of Bear Creek (you can read my review here) and Fred Blosser has read Howard’s westerns, too. On the back cover of Sixgun Vixens of the Terror Trail (Black Stone Press, 2024) there’s this teaser: “Western action and weird thrills in the Robert. E. Howard tradition.”

Fred discusses Howard’s “The Vultures of Wahpeton” in his Afterword to Sixgun Vixens of the Terror Trail and quotes The Collected Stories of Robert E. Howard, Volume 3: 1933-1936, p. 243 where Howard’s comment on “The Vultures of Wahpeton” is “one of the best stories I’ve ever written”. The story features Steve Corcoran, a dour, fast-drawing Texan. Fred’s story features Steve Cochran, another dour, fast-drawing Texan–who one of the vixens accuses of being Steve Corcoran.

Cochran and the sixgun vixens are searching for a fortune of silver in dangerous country where an Apache war party and a band of Mexican bandits operate. The silver is rumored to be hidden in the ruins of the old, abandoned Black Mission. But when Cochran and the sixgun vixens reach the mission, they find Mexican bandits and…a surprise from the weird world of H. P. Lovecraft!

Fred provides an entertaining confection with Sixgun Vixens of the Terror Trail. I hope Fred’s busy writing a sequel, something like Sixgun Vixens and The Necronomicon. GRADE: B+