Base Cowboys by Mark Farrer #BaseCowboys @mark_farrer @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours

I hope everyone is having a good weekend and the weather is fair. It’s a bit hit and miss here in the Scottish Borders so perfect for reading and not venturing far.

Today is the final day for of the blog tour for Base Cowboys by Mark Farrer and I have the pleasure of sharing my review. Thanks go to Emma of Damppebbles Blog Tours for the invite and the author for the review copy.

About the Book

BASE COWBOYS is a comic crime trilogy set in the Scottish Borders. It is the sixth laugh-out-loud book in the CULLEN series written by Borders author Mark Farrer and will appeal to readers of Christopher Brookmyre, Carl Hiaasen, Nick Spalding or Tom Sharpe. The book tells the stories of three amoral ne’er-do-wells, their unfortunate and accidental intrusion into Cullen’s life, and the imaginative ways he finds of ensuring (his) justice is done:

Dirty Barry

The first casualty of adultery is… the tooth!

Barry Sullivan is a sordid dentist who resorts to blackmail to keep his string of married women in line. But now Cullen has toothache – and a very different interpretation of the dental code of practice.

Bronchial Billy

Meet Billy – the fastest gun in a vest.

Billy is a geriatric slum landlord desperate to win first prize in a Country & Western gunfight competition. But his trigger-happy birthday celebrations provoke Cullen, and now Billy must pay. Will he meet his High Noon at the Grand Ole Opryor will he go out with a bang? Whatever happens, there’s sure to be fireworks.

Pale Ale Rider

There’s trouble brewing…

Tyler is a teenage tearaway with the eyes of a serial killer. But when he decides to rob Big Paul’s local pub, he gets more than he bargained for. Will Tyler lose his bottle, or just get smashed? Cullen thinks he’s seen dead eyes like those before, and now he has a plan: he’s not bitter, he’s just a little twisted.

Base Cowboys is available to purchase now – Amazon

My thoughts

Base Cowboys is three novellas brought together to make one hilarious book that I had intended reading over three nights. Having read The Good, The Bad and The Rugby by Mark Farrer previously and enjoying it, I thought I’d make Base Cowboys last but of course it didn’t work like that. Once I started reading I couldn’t stop and finished it in two sittings.

Set in the Scottish Borders these novellas had me laughing out loud many a times, they had me cringing and also totally and utterly gripped.

Each story is quite different and focus on the bad guys and what shenanigans they are getting up to. I think the worst one for me was Dirty Barry the dentist. A total sleaze ball that gave me the creeps. I’ll certainly be making sure I don’t end up with a five o’clock appointment the next time I go to the dentist.

One thing the three novellas have in common are Cullen, he’s a mysterious man who likes to find justice and turns up and tries to make things right and although he doesn’t feature as much in these novellas he’s still a prominent part of the stories. His best friend Big Paul, a seriously bad time keeper is another great character and the banter between the pair is great, they’re a funny pair.

Ultimately these novellas are about the bad guys, the bad guys you love to hate and these characters are quite memorable. Mark Farrer has created characters that stay with you, they aren’t easily forgettable whether good or bad and are quite easily imaginable.

Base Cowboys is a fantastic read, it had me laughing and totally gripped from start to finish. It’s one of those books you’d happily keep on reading and I was quite sad to see it finish. I do like novellas but I’m not a huge fan so bringing the three together was perfect for me and I’m really looking forward to reading more from Mark Farrer soon.

Catch up on the tour

About the author

Mark Farrer is the author of six comedy novels and novellas, each set in the Scottish Borders with a distinctive Scottish backdrop – whether salmon farming, textile mills, Rugby Sevens or the Scottish criminal justice system. His books are multi-stranded storylines involving larger-than-life characters, whose plans and incompetence inevitably exceed their wits. All feature an itinerant loner, Cullen, who lives off the grid and finds himself inadvertently drawn into someone’s crazy scheme, only for his own (very individual) sense of right and wrong to be offended. That’s generally when things start to go wronger.