The Bull Whip Breed — J.T. Edson

They met in a New Orleans alleyway in the dark days following the Civil War. His name was Philippe St Andre -- a peace officer -- and he was in the process of being beaten up by a gang of hardcases. Her name was Martha Jane Canary, and with a few unladylike tricks she dispersed the thugs with an ease that belied her boyish appearance.
That meeting proved providential for the good citizens of New Orleans and fatal for the maniacal killer who had been terrorizing the streets of the city. Already seven girls had fallen into the clutches of the notorious “Strangler”. What the police needed was a girl with courage enough to act as bait for the killer, and who better, thought St Andre, than the slim girl who had saved his life and who was known throughout the West as Calamity Jane.

J.T. Edson was a former British Army dog-handler who wrote more than 130 Western novels, accounting for some 27 million sales in paperback. Edson's works - produced on a word processor in an Edwardian semi at Melton Mowbray - contain clear, crisp action in the traditions of B-movies and Western television series. What they lack in psychological depth is made up for by at least twelve good fights per volume. Each portrays a vivid, idealized “West That Never Was”, at a pace that rarely slackens.