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| I suspect the cover is a strong clue to the quality of the Ruff Justice series |
The arrival of any eBay purchase brings with it a certain frisson of excitement, but it's been a long while since I was as hyped as I was about today's arrival of 10 trashy Western novels all the way from the Good Ol' US of A.
This was my very first purchase from eBay in the States (as opposed to the UK, where I've shopped frequently since the year 2000) and it granted me a thrilling point-by-point ability to track the parcel on its 15 day voyage from Oklahoma to my front door.
But what had driven me to make such a trans-Atlantic investment?
Booktube, of course!
Late last month, my favourite Booktuber, Michael K Vaughn, took delivery of a box of Westerns that he'd been sent ahead of June on The Range.
Among this collection was a book from a 1980's series I'd never heard of before: Ruff Justice.
I was immediately hooked by its obvious low-brow, sex-and-violence trashiness and knew I had to get some Ruff Justice titles for my growing collection.
This was my very first purchase from eBay in the States (as opposed to the UK, where I've shopped frequently since the year 2000) and it granted me a thrilling point-by-point ability to track the parcel on its 15 day voyage from Oklahoma to my front door.
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| My new Ruff Justice collection |
But what had driven me to make such a trans-Atlantic investment?
Booktube, of course!
Late last month, my favourite Booktuber, Michael K Vaughn, took delivery of a box of Westerns that he'd been sent ahead of June on The Range.
Among this collection was a book from a 1980's series I'd never heard of before: Ruff Justice.
I was immediately hooked by its obvious low-brow, sex-and-violence trashiness and knew I had to get some Ruff Justice titles for my growing collection.
But it turned out that even the individual titles (and Goodreads says there's 28 in the "adult Western" series) are nigh on impossible to find over here in the UK or are ridiculously pricey when they do appear.
So, I gave up hope of ever getting to read the adventures of former army scout Ruffin T Justice, and just kept my fingers crossed that maybe one day my eBay alert would flash up an affordable edition.
But then later, just Googling the series name threw up a link to eBay in the States. Normally I'd just move on, ignore it, and keep hunting on this side of The Pond.
But the 10 books listed in the bundle looked in decent shape and once I'd calculated the combined cost of the books and shipping it worked out at just over a couple of quid per volume. I thought that was really reasonable, and an investment that wasn't likely to come along again any time soon.
So I pulled the trigger.
And, boy, I'm glad I did.
The books look great and I can't wait to dive into the first (Widow Creek, number four in the series).
As someone who hungrily devoured Mack Bolan: The Executioner pulp novels in his formative years, I'm braced for a certain level of glorious crassness (not that I recall any rumpy-pumpy in The Executioner, that was all just killing).
It has to be said that the few reviews I've seen online for this less well-known Western series (written by Paul Lederer under the pseudonym of Warren T Longtree and published by Signet) are a mixed bag but generally aren't exactly flattering.
But who cares, right?
I wonder if Ruffin T Justice will find his way into my Dead Man's Hand games or possibly some future roleplaying game scenario?
Only time will tell.
Before we go our separate ways, I must point out that I was incredibly impressed with the packaging of these books (I guess I'm used to Amazon's often 'devil-may-care approach to shipping books).
Here's a photo-record of my unboxing experience:
