Rory Black

 The Shadow of Iron Eyes

Iron Eyes #14

by

Rory Black

(Michael D. George)

Blinded after an accident, bounty hunter Iron Eyes roamed aimlessly until he heard the hungry crackle of flames devouring a ranch house in the distance. As he rode closer, he smelled the cold, metallic stench of spilled blood, and worse, the stink of burning bodies. Dismounting, he tried to learn more about what had happened to these people … but that was when he stopped a bullet, too.

Wounded, he fell, then lay helpless as his assailant came closer, intending to finish the job.

What happened next led the bounty hunter south to a place where only the Devil would feel at home. A place where the law had never ventured, a place where Iron Eyes would have to kill anyone who stood in his way.

Iron Eyes is nearly blind—temporarily, but badly enough that he moves through the world in a fog. In that dazed state he stumbles upon a burning ranch house, the bodies inside already beyond saving. Before he can make sense of the scene, a hidden gunman shoots him down.

When he finally wakes, he discovers his attacker is a girl named Sally—young, sharp, and far more dangerous than she first appears.

Thrown together by circumstance, these unlikely partners set out after the killers, riding hard toward the Mexican border, where their pursuit ends in blood and violence.

As a story, it isn’t the strongest entry in the series, but it isn’t the weakest either. This is the first time readers meet Squirrel Sally, who becomes a recurring presence in later Iron Eyes novels. Iron Eyes himself remains exactly as expected—unyielding, impossible to kill, and stubborn enough to keep going even half‑blind.

The odd piece is Mason Burr, a cold‑blooded killer whose storyline barely intersects with the main plot. He drifts alongside the narrative only to cross paths with the true villains near the end, without contributing to the final showdown. His inclusion seems mainly to set up how Squirrel Sally eventually acquires the stagecoach she uses in future books.

Still, the writing is solid, even if this installment doesn’t quite stand with the best of the series.

3/5