Sudden at Bay

2nd in the Sudden series by Frederick H Christian. The Cotton boys owned the town. Nothing moved in or out without their say– so. Drifters weren't encouraged. Move on, they were told. There's a lot of lead in the air. All except one moved on. He was a dark- haired stranger who gave the name Green, and asked about two men he was looking for. When the Cottons tried to gun down an unarmed kid, he took a hand. The Cotton boys decided to make an example of him to the rest of the town. They didn't know they were taking on legendary gunfighter: Sudden. Frederick Nolan, a.k.a. 'Frederick H. Christian', was born in Liverpool, England and was educated there and at Aberaeron in Wales. He decided early in life to become a writer, but it was some thirty years before he got around to achieving his ambition. His first book was The Life and Death of John Henry Tunstall, and it established him as an authority on the history of the American frontier. Later he founded The English Westerners' Society. In addition to the much-loved Frank Angel westerns, Fred also wrote five entries in the popular Sudden series started by Oliver Strange. Among his numerous non-western novels is the best-selling The Oshawa Project (published as The Algonquin Project in the US) which was later filmed by MGM as Brass Target. A leading authority on the outlaws and gunfighters of the Old West, Fred has scripted and appeared in many television programs both in England and in the United States, and authored numerous articles in historical and other academic publications. James Green aka Sudden is a fictional character created by an English author Oliver Strange in the early 1930s as the hero of a series, originally published by George Newnes Books Ltd, set in the American Wild West era. Oliver Strange died in 1952, and the series was revived by Frederick H. Christian in the 1960s.The books are centred around a gunfighter in the American Wild West, who is in search of two men who cheated his foster father. Jim the young man promises his dying father that he will find the two and take revenge. He gives the name James Green to himself (his real first name,we find out in Llaw o' the Lariat,is Donald) and in time gets accused of a robbery himself and becomes an outlaw.The series details the adventures of a gunfighter who earns the nickname "Sudden" because of his lightning speed with a gun. Sudden is also characterized as an intelligent man who is respectful of the law, unwilling to use a gun unless absolutely necessary, humanitarian, brave, and strong.