Got this in the mail today 8)
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Ah, I actually found an e-book version of Coffin Full Of Dollars on Frostwire I downloaded, was actually pretty cool! I should probably get around to finding the other books 
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This Cinema Raiders blog has an entry on spaghetti western novelizations, including the Dollars films. Really cool to see cover scans and read the back cover summaries, like this one for The Mercenary:
He was cold as steel, hard as iron, and on the make for the only metal that really counted - gold. All sides in the battle for Mexico offered it. He chose the highest bidder - a peasant bandit, three-quarters fool, with dreams of glory and an impossible demand: "Teach me to make a revolution." He was a hired gun. He would do what he was paid for - even if he taught too well, even if the lessons cost him his life.Read the exciting novel. See the United Artists Film. The Mercenary.
Link: Cinema Raiders: When You Have To Read, Read... Don't Talk
Frank Chandler was a pseudonym of the British writer Terry Harknett, and this was his first western. As "George G Gilman" he went on to write the epic pulp western series "Edge", more vivid than his Fistful of Dollars novelisation, and considerably more graphic. As "William Terry", he also wrote the novelisation of the Anglo-Spanish western A Town Called Bastard, which actually outdoes the film in terms of violence and sadism, and captures the grotesqueness of a good spaghetti western more than anything else I've read. If you want the literary equivalent of a film like Blindman, then this is the book for you!
Terry is a good friend of mine. Actually, he acted as my writing mentor for years.
I own all of his books, and highly recommend them. A spaghetti oater crowd would especially like his EDGE books (as you’ve mentioned). I would also have to say that any of the Piccadilly Cowboys releases would appeal to this bunch.
Just got from a garden fate sale Joe Millard’s The Devil’s Dollar Sign. Turns out it’s our third copy, all three of which have slightly different covers. When I get the chance I’ll post some scans. It’d be interesting if we could put together a record of all the different cover variations.
I read ‘A Dollar to Die For’ today and did a review on it.
Not good, not bad. I think it could have gone in a different direction.
I think that Manco talked way too much in the novel. The relationship between him and Shadrach is a lot of fun though. Another one of Manco’s bromances.
And then there’s Apachito. My God, is he a riot. I loved how hammy and pompous he was, and yet he screamed like a girl at a moth-eaten lion. He was really entertaining to read about.
There’s that vivid chase scene with the flash flood, that was cool.
I thought the circus element was new and interesting. I couldn’t quite see Manco willingly becoming a circus act, though.
I have the three Dollars trilogy novels. I bought them used and out-of-print on Amazon.com. They weren’t expensive. I only read GBU so far. You’re right though. They are very quick reads.
I purchased The Million Dollar Blood hunt awhile ago, pretty okay, though there were a few distracting typos, especially when a characters gun apparently switches from being a .44 to a .45 caliber.
Pretty fun book though.
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That’s the one with Puchuco in it, isn’t it?
Pachuco, I mean.
I’ve got an issue with the way the characters Apachito, Bandera and Pachuco are described. Their physical descriptions are far too vague. They’re all given the same descriptions of “squat” or “stocky” or “thick-bodied”, and that’s it. Millard doesn’t properly help the reader to visualise them.
I’ve been reviewing A Coffin Full of Dollars, Blood for a Dirty Dollar and The Million Dollar Bloodhunt.
I’ve realized that the ending of The Million Dollar Bloodhunt reminds me of both endings of The Good, the Bad, the Weird, depending on which of them is in Tae-goo’s place, Pachuco (for the International ending) or Manco (essentially for the Korean ending).
Do you have those reviews handy? I’m getting set to read them but would like to start with the best of them. I’m thinking of reading Blood For A Dirty Dollar But would like an opinion. Thanks!
I read them all in order of publication but they can really be read in any order. I quite enjoyed them but not sure I could pick out any particular one as being the best. Blood for a Dirty Dollar would be as good as any other I guess.
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I started picking up ‘movie tie in’ books from charity shops years ago - don’t see many around these days, as they’re either pulped or put out on ebay.
Charity shops these days look more like clean neat boutiques, but 20 or 30 years ago they looked more like jumble sales, and were more interesting and much cheaper.
Relating to SW novelizations, I have Hannie Caulder, Sabata, and the late 60s copy of GBU … This thread has put me in the mood to finally check them out, though they probably have as much dust on them now as Arch Stanton’s grave 
I have those too as well as Fistful of Dynamite which I have not read yet.
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Still searching high and low for online reviews of these titles:
A Coffin Full of Dollars
The Devil’s Dollar Sign
Blood For A Dirty Dollar
The Million Dollar Bloodhunt
If anyone can share a link to these reviews I would greatly appreciate it. Been wanting to read them but just wanted to get a brief synopsis of each one first.
Here’s a starting point
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Related video
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