A Spaghetti Western with Meatballs

by Ed Gorman

After I finished the novel DEATH GROUND, a reviewer noted the similarity between it and a spaghetti western called "The Great Silence." I was curious and ordered a video  tape of it (this was long before DVDs).

"Silence" is one of the most powerful films of any kind I've ever seen.

It is not "a spaghetti Western" in the usual sense. I saw the similarities the reviewer talked about.

What I tried to do in DEATH GROUND was tell a realistic story set on the frontier. Leo Guild, my series character, is adrift after accidentally killing a child when one of his shots went wild. He spends a bitter birthday in a whorehouse. And while he's there the teenage kid he hired to watch over a man named Merle Rig--an angry man who hired Guild to protect him--gets killed. Guild feels obliged to find the killer.

On the frontier there were many cults and upstart religions. Some feel that Mormonism is a cult, for instance. I read about a group of shabby, impoverished and desperate people who followed a charismatic man into the wilds to create a settlement where they could start life over. They would build houses, they would farm the land and they would raise their children to be strong and healthy 

In DEATH GROUND that charismatic man is Kriker. But he is anything but a soothing presence. He is a violent outlaw who has robbed many banks and cut down many men. His people stay with him because he has the strength and purpose they have yet to develop for themselves. 

Kriker is the main suspect in the killing of the teenager. Guild goes after Kriker not because he's a bounty hunter but because he feels morally bound to avenge the kid's murder. He is accompanied by the Bruckner brothers, a pair of sleazy gunnies who are after the big reward Kriker's corpse will bring them. The Bruckners would be right at home in a Sam Peckinpah movie. Think of some of the scuzziest of William Holden's men in "The Wild Bunch" and you've got the Bruckner brothers. 

But weather and violence aren't the only enemies Guild and the Bruckners must face. Cholera swept through the frontier with ruthless efficiency. Dozens could die in a few days. Kriker's encampment has been stricken by the disease. It is into this catastrophe that Guild and the Bruckners ride. 

When the reviewer said that there were similarities between "The Great Silence" (which you really should rent) and DEATH GROUND, he was referring to the fact that they both feature characters who are looking to change themselves. Guild still has nightmares about the little girl he accidentally killed; Kriker's child is dying of cholera; and the people in the encampment want to turn themselves into hopeful and useful people.

This is probably the most violent of my westerns, something else it has in common with "The Great Silence." I didn't intend it to be that way but given the combustible nature of the people and the story line...it just turned out that way.

I think DEATH GROUND is a little different from a lot of westerns.

Publishers Weekly was nice enough to say that "This is a western for grown-ups, written in a lean, hardboiled style." 

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.