Last Update 12/31/24

Flight into Fear by Duncan Kyle, Fontana, 1972 

This is a complicated but exciting story of a freelance pilot who gets caught up in drug smuggling and espionage when he is hired to secretly fly someone out of San Francisco and to England. A gang of Chinese drug dealers kidnaps him, chases him in a boat race, tries to shoot down the airplane he is flying, sabotage his fuel, and take other steps designed to kill him. He also gets caught up with a Cuban dissident who stows away aboard his plane and attempts to hijack it. It is not clear whom he can trust and which of the various parties is an enemy. Unfortunately the story has an awful ending, with multiple implausible explanations for various things. Quite a letdown from his first book. 12/31/24

Rimrock Rider by Walker Thompson, Ace, 1950  

A variant of the classic Destry Rides Again. The hero of this one was imprisoned based on false testimony, and now that his sentence has been served, he is headed home to confront his accusers. But before he even arrives, there is an attempt to murder him, and he discovers that a small band of masked outlaws has been terrorizing the neighborhood. Not badly done, but Max Brand did it much better. 12/31/24

A Cage of Ice by Duncan Kyle, Berkley, 1987 (originally published in 1970) a582 

Kyle’s debut novel is really two different stories. The first half involves a young doctor who is chased by KGB agents through New York City. He has no idea why they are after him. The second part involves the doctor and five other men sneaking into Arctic Russia to rescue a scientist who wants to defect rather than participate in a program that could have catastrophic effects on the climate. Both are suspenseful and lively and the prose is exceptionally good. I had a bit of a problem when the protagonist avoids telling the police what is going on but that gets smoothed over eventually. Kyle was not prolific and I have all of his other novels sitting in my office waiting to be read. 12/18/24

Outback by Michael Davies, Harper, 2023 

This is the sequel to Domino Island, which Davies completed from an unpublished Desmond Bagley manuscript. Bill Kemp is an insurance investigator. Threatening letters, assaults, a fatal hit and run incident, burglary, sabotage, and other problems hamper a married couple whom Kemp is helping to claim a potentially valuable mine in the Australian desert. There is an obvious villain in the story, but he turns out to be mostly a red herring. The twist at the end is just barely plausible. I believe Davies is writing another novel featuring Kemp for publication next year. I will probably read it. 12/12/24

Domino Island by Desmond Bagley, Harper, 2019  

This was an unpublished manuscript that was edited and retitled by Michael Davies more than a decade after Bagley’s death. It brings back Bill Kemp as protagonist, an insurance investigator, and Davies would later write a sequel of his own. The story takes place on a fictional Caribbean island where a prominent reformist politician appears to have died of natural causes, but under odd circumstances. An insurance investigator gets involved with casinos, revolutionary politics, corrupt police, a rich widow, a formidable mistress, and an ambitious hijacking plot. 12/5/24

Where There’s a Will by Mary Roberts Rinehart, 1912

Although this is often listed among Rinehart’s mystery novels, it is actually a romance novel. The death of the owner of a sanitarium for rheumatism dies and the new owner creates a good deal of unrest with changes he proposes and the possible closing of the institution. A woman who has worked there is the narrator and she goes through a series of different emotional states before realizing that she is in love with him. It’s rather dull. 12/5/24

Juggernaut by Desmond Bagley, Fontana, 1985 

This was the last novel that Bagley finished before his death – an unfinished one was completed by another writer some time later. The plot involves the effort to move a massive piece of equipment across the countryside in a fictional African country which promptly erupts in civil war while they are en route. Their path blocked, they decide to help transport the patients and staff of an isolated hospital to a safer area, but are caught between the two armies. There are subplots involving a member of the crew who appears to be a mercenary in disguise, a murder, some personality conflicts, as well as several physical problems. A little slow to start but it picks up well and ends with a double climax.  12/1/24

Massacre at White River by Lewis B. Patten, Ace, 1947   

A much more complex and rewarding western than most I have read recently. The protagonist gains control of a freight company, but this inadvertently tips a villain off into initiating a deadly and illegal power grab aided by inciting a local tribe of otherwise peaceful Utes into going on the warpath. Our hero also indulges in one of the mainstays of western fiction – defending the young woman who is trying to run her own ranch and is being bullied by a neighbor. This was my first try at Patten and I’ll try him again. 12/1/24

Night of Error by Desmond Bagley, St Martins, 1984 

Reports arrive that a scientist has died in the South Pacific, supposedly of appendicitis, although his brother – the protagonist – knows this is false because he had his appendix removed years earlier. He seems to have been trying to exploit a find of manganese nodules that contain a igh concentration of valuable cobalt. Unfortunately, a ruthless gang of criminals working for an unscrupulous mining operation is prepared to kill anyone who interferes with their own plans to locate and exploit the find. Much of the story is set at sea as some of the villains follow the expedition’s sailboat while others wait for them to arrive. The first half is a bit slow but it picks up nicely after that. I have no idea what the title means since there are no significant nights or errors. 11/23/24

Windfall by Desmond Bagley, Summit, 1982 

Two separate criminal conspiracies collide in Kenya with Max Stafford – who first appeared in Flyaway – right in the middle. A large legacy is to be split between two cousins, but Stafford discovers that one of the cousins is an impostor. He is looking into that when another party of the legacy is slated as a donation to an agricultural foundation in Kenya that has some peculiar aspects. Among other things, its board of directors mostly have criminal records. There is also an excessive amount of security for such a low key establishment. Before long the CIA, MI6, Kenyan military intelligence, and South African agents are all in the mix. One man gets bitten in half by a hippo. Good adventure writing but no real puzzle about what’s going on or is about to happen after the first fifty pages. 11/14/24

Action Along the Humboldt by Karl Kramer, Ace, 1956 

This is a slightly above average western about a man obsessed with revenge on the man whom he believes has done him wrong. This bit of plot is sandwiched around a survival story as he is forced to cross a dangerous stretch of desert while being pursued by enemies. He eludes them, obviously, and then runs into a woman whom he thinks might be able to help him achieve his vengeance. But things are not what they seem to be and there are some minor plot twists before everything is resolved.  11/14/24

Rogue Sword by Poul Anderson, Avon, 1960 

An adventure story set mostly in 14^th Century Byzantium. The protagonist is a rootless man who makes some powerful enemies as well as influential friends. He gets caught up in efforts to prevent the Turks from seizing the city and then fights corsairs before a confrontation with his old enemy almost costs him his life. This was a fairly good historical novel, but still not up to the quality of his science fiction.  11/11/24

Decision at Sundown by Michael Carder, Ace, 1955

A rather boring western set in a small town where the local pastor is about to get married. Just as the festivities are getting underway, a troublesome outlaw comes into town and causes some turmoil. Fortunately, the pastor is a former gunman himself – reformed – but he has to temporarily come out of retirement to deal with the problem or kiss his marriage plans goodbye. Adequately written but not even mildly interesting. 11/11/24

Bahama Crisis by Desmond Bagley, Fontana, 1980 

A businessman in the Bahamas is devastated when his wife and daughter disappear at sea in the family yacht. He later learns that they were murdered and the yacht used for smuggling, and he tracks down the man responsible – although he is so incompetent that the man easily escapes. Months later, his wife is kidnapped and then so is he, by a quirky criminal mastermind who thinks that he knows more about the smuggling operation than he actually does. He manages to escape, but then has to rescue his wife. I didn’t find this nearly as suspenseful as Bagley’s other novels and actually put it down for something else a couple of times before finishing it. 11/6/24

Flyaway by Desmond Bagley, Fontana, 1978  

An obsessed minor clerk runs off to North Africa to discover what happened to his father, who was a pioneering aviator whose plane disappeared into the Sahara. A security consultant is mildly curious, and becomes more so when a bunch of thugs beat him up to discourage him from investigating further. Recovered, he is off to Algeria to find out what’s going on. Adventures on the desert, some involving more thugs, and the eventual revelation that the aircraft was sabotaged – which I had already figured out long before although I wasn’t sure who was responsible. One of his better books.  10/28/24

The Wolf Slayer by William E. Vance, Ace, 1964

This is an unusually character driven western and one of the better ones I’ve read recently. The protagonist’s parents were killed by marauders when he was a child and he defended their bodies from a pack of wolves in the aftermath. Years later, he is a professional wolf killer who vows to clear a valley of the animals. In the process he meets two feuding sisters, one of whom eventually becomes his romantic interest. He also discovers that there are some people who are every bit as devious and dangerous as are wolves, and he finds himself pitted against a more serious enemy, a man with many ambitions and few qualms about how to achieve them. 10/28/24

The Enemy by Desmond Bagley, Perennial, 1977 

A British counter espionage agent stumbles into a mystery when he becomes romantically involved with a young woman whose father turns out to be a Soviet defector living under an assumed name. A fanatic throws acid into the sister’s face and this seems to provoke the father and his faithful valet to go into hiding. Although he doesn’t work for the government, his expertise is highly valued and he cannot be allowed to fall under Soviet influence again. The fugitives are tracked to Sweden, where a botched assignment results in both of them being killed. So what was his secret, why did he go into hiding, and who was after him? Not always convincing – people engage in complicated plots where a simple one would have worked just fine. 10/24/24

The Snow Tiger by Desmond Bagley, 1975  

This is mostly about a massive avalanche of snow that buries a small town in New Zealand. Despite early warnings, the town council is reluctant to do anything about it and inadequate preparations are made for the event. In the foreground of all this is the arrival of a new manager for t he local mine. He had grown up there and his family has been feuding with a powerful local family, the Petersons. The old animosity begins almost the moment he arrives. Much of the book consists of testimony at a hearing after the disaster, aided by flashbacks. There is a good deal of treachery and lying among the various people involved. It comes to a climax when it is learned that the avalanche was started deliberately by one of the Petersons. Not a great deal of plot, but very engaging. 10/16/24

The Golden Slave by Poul Anderson, Avon, 1960

This historical adventure begins with the defeat of the Cimbri by the Roman Army. The protagonist is the son of a Cimbri chieftain who becomes the slave of a man who was formerly his own slave. He also loses his wife and child. Eventuallly he escapes and tries to rescue his wife, but she believed him dead and considers herself dishonored for sleeping with her owner. After more adventures he and an escaped Greek slave named Phryne manage to go off on their own to make a new life together. Entertaining but undistinguished. 10/12/24

The Tightrope Men by Desmond Bagley, 1973

The protagonist wakes up in a strange hotel in Norway with a completely different face and papers suggesting that he is someone else whom he has never met. There turn out to be four different parties interested in him, or the person they believe him to be – Czechs, Americans, British, and an unknown fourth party. His life is also complicated by the arrival of his alter ego’s daughter. This eventually leads to a siege in a mountain cabin, a dangerous escape across a swamp, other attempts to assassinate him or at least to steal something he is supposed to possess. He becomes a red herring while two agents sneak into Russia and retrieve the real papers, which are key to a new weapons technology. A bit creaky around the edges of the plot but basically well done. 10/8/24

Running Blind by Desmond Bagley, 1970 

This was a very good spy story even though it uses a premise I dislike – the agent who retires because he cannot stand the hypocrisy of the organization and who is forced to take on one more mission. Couple this with another theme I find irritating – the discovery that a senior member of the espionage group is actually working for the other side. Despite these two handicaps, I enjoyed the novel, which is mostly a chase across parts of Iceland as the hero and his fiancé have a piece of technology that both sides want. There are also some puzzling side issues with American spies unaccountably intruding themselves into the operation.  9/26/24

The Spoilers by Desmond Bagley, Fontana, 1969 

The premise of this one was unconvincing. Bagley apparently assumed that virtually all of the drugs imported into the US came from one single supplies in the Mideast, which was implausible even fifty years ago. A man whose daughter died of an overdose finances five men who travel there to destroy the drug trade. They do so, losing only one of their own people, blowing up an underground laboratory complex, killing several key players in the gang, and finally using modified torpedoes to sink a yacht containing the head of the organization. The relative ease with which they accomplish all of this was also unrealistic. 9/18/24

The Freedom Trap by Desmond Bagley, 1971 

This was filmed as The Mackintosh Man. A British agent poses as a professional criminal in order to be arrested and sentenced to the same prison where a master spy is being held. His job is twofold. First, he is to make sure that the spy does not get back to Russia with the information he possesses. Second, he is supposed to find out who is behind a gang that very effectively arranges prison escapes. Somewhat fortuitously, he and the spy are rescued in a joint operation, but things do not go well after that. The fact that only two people know his real identity – one of whom is mortally ill and unconscious – complicates his efforts to find the spy and kill him. He is assisted by the obligatory attractive young woman, but a very competent one. Very good story. 9/11/24

The Vivero Letter by Desmond Bagley, Doubleday, 1968 

Bagley’s fifth novel moves to the Yucatan, following a murder in rural England. The protagonist discovers that an old family tray is actually the key to locating a lost Mayan city and that various people, some of them pretty unscrupulous, are after the secret. He actually solves the mystery of the tray’s hidden message before the two rival archaeologists and insists upon joining the expedition because he thinks that the man responsible for his brother’s death – a career criminal with considerable power in the underworld – may follow them because he thinks there is a treasure trove of gold to be stolen. They experience some routine and low key adventures in the jungle before the villain arrives with his fairly large entourage and the real violence begins. Most of the expedition will eventually be wiped out and the city holds some secrets of its own. Compulsive reading. 9/10/24

Landslide by Desmond Bagley, Fontana, 1967 

The author reaches a bit too far with the premise for this one. Three people were killed in an automobile accident that has suspicious undertones and which left one of two partners as sole owner of a very large business empire in Canada. There was a hitchhiker in the car who survived, but who spent years in a hospital, has lost all memory of the accident and his previous life, and whose face is altered by the surgery so that he is unrecognizable. He learns that he was not a nice person beforehand so he changes his name. Quite by chance, he finds himself taking a temporary job as a geologist in a small town that turns out to be the place where he was injured. 9/7/24

The Ridgerunner by Ray Hogan, Ace, 1960

One of the standard ploys of western fiction is the man who returns home and becomes the focus of some trouble, the best example of which is Max Brand’s Destry Rides Again. This is in the same vein. The hero had gone away in order to avoid tensions and bad feelings with his family and others. Years later, he happens to be in the area and decides to pay a visit, only to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit and forced to become a fugitive. Hogan writes pretty well and I found this quite enjoyable. 9/7/24

The Street of Seven Stars by Mary Roberts Rinehart, 1914 

This is a romance novel rather than a mystery, even though the Dell paperback describes it as an adventure story. A student musician in Vienna becomes involved with other expatriates, struggles to earn enough money to survive, interacts with various characters including a brief incident involving a Bosnian spy, and eventually falls in love with an impoverished doctor who has decided to return to America where he can make a better living. Not bad, but not really to my taste.  The packaging of the Dell paperback is decidedly deceptive. 8/28/24

Side Me with Sixes by Tom West, Ace, 1960  

The protagonist of this mildly entertaining western has a change of heart. As the story opens, he is perfectly willing to take a job working for the crooks who run a small town, even if that means putting the squeeze on some of the honest citizens. But when his bosses decide to pressure a young woman to sell her ranch at an unfair price, he decides that this is over the limit for his flexible morals. He changes sides and almost singlehandedly battles his former comrades and employers in order to save her from what seems an inevitable fate. 8/28/24

Wyatt’s Hurricane by Desmond Bagley, Pyramid, 1966 

Another quite good adventure novel, this time set on a fictional Caribbean island that is in the middle of a war to overthrow a possibly insane dictator. The chief protagonist is a meteorologist and hurricane expert who suspects that a particularly violent storm is going to veer from its probable path and hit the island directly. If it does, it would completely destroy the main city, which is shaping up to be the battleground containing not only civilians but the bulk of both armies. The other protagonists are attempting to survive and find high ground, or trying to cover the story for the news services, or coming to terms with a crisis in their own lives. Not quite as inventive as in the author’s previous book but still full of action. 8/26/24

Mr. Sixgun by Brian Garfield (as Brian Wynne), Ace, 1964 

Garfield returns to familiar ground with this short western. The marshal of a small town has ambivalent feelings toward a famous gunman, whom he respects as a man even though his presence is likely to make it more difficult to maintain law and order. The presence of several other gunmen in town appears to be coincidental, but the marshal recognizes that a collision is inevitable and he orders the gunman to leave town the next morning. The gunman helps the marshal run off the gang and then has a confrontation with a young woman who plans to shoot him but falters at the crucial moment. This all culminates in a big gunfight. 8/23/24

High Citadel by Desmond Bagley, Fontana, 1965 

Communist agents force a small plane to crashland high in the Andes where they plan to kill all the passengers, specifically a popular politician whose existence threatens their own plans for taking power. A partial bridge collapse delays the killers and the survivors organize a makeshift defense system using crossbows, a trebuchet, and Molotov Cocktails. This is a very good adventure story that would make a great movie if done well. There is a clever and protracted battle sequence over the bridge, a trek across treacherous mountain passes, and other action packed scene. The conclusion is slightly forced but not enough to spoil a very good book. 8/22/24

The Golden Keel by Desmond Bagley, Chancellor, 1963 

Three men, one an alcoholic, one a killer, team up to retrieve a treasure trove of Italian gold and jewels which were hidden in an abandoned mine during the war. The third man is the narrator, who has just built a yacht that seems perfect for smuggling the loot out of Italy. They have internal problems even before they are blackmailed by an Italian woman who has a rough idea what they are after. They also attract the attention of a major criminal figure in the area, who gathers a couple of dozen men in preparation for a profitable hijacking.  The story moves inevitably toward a major clash, but ironically, no one gets away with the prize. Excellent debut. 8/98/24

The Long Fuse by John R. Latham, Ace, 1960

The protagonist of his short western novel is the sheriff of a town that, for the most part, would just as soon not have any representatives of the law in the area. Fortunately, he finds an ally, a man who is brave, good with a gun, and apparently quite loyal. But as time passes, the friend becomes less reliable, acts nervously, spends more money than he should possess, and acts embarrassed on multiple occasions. Could he have sold out to the sinister members of the citizenry or is there something else going on? Readable routine western adventure with a couple of mild surprises to liven things up. 8/8/24

The Useless Gun by Jack M. Bickham, Ace, 1960

A young man abandons his home town, which is dominated by a gang of killers, because his conscience tells him to face down the bad guys and restore law and order. His problem is that one member of the gang is his brother, and he cannot force himself to confront a family member in a situation where he might have to shoot to kill. But he discovers that he is unable to put the situation behind him and eventually returns. This is a fair western adventure although I found the dialogue to be unusually clunky and sometimes outright artificial.  7/22/24

Bronc by X.X. Jones, Ace, 1968 

This western makes use of the traditional, and historical, rivalry of sheep vs cattle in the Southwest. The protagonist decides to break with his brother and father and set up a sheep ranch, even though the brother openly threatens to ruin him, or worse. The other cattle ranchers in the area are similarly incensed because they don’t like land being fenced off and resent the influx of settlers who inevitably follow the introduction of sheep to an area. The anger predictably turns to violence. Dialogue is not great in this one but the plot is okay, though the cattle ranchers are painted as a little too bit nasty. 7/16/24

Johnny Sundance by Brad Ward, Ace, 1952 

Yet another iteration of the three most common western plots – the other two being the outsider who cleans up the crooked town and the man who has to prove his innocence. This is the one where a powerful cattle ranch owner decides that he wants to incorporate a smaller holding into his property. The latter place is owned by a woman who has no one to protect her until the hero, a wanderer, happens upon the scene and decides to take her side. So predictable that I skimmed the second half. 7/16/24

Last Stage to Gomorrah by Barry Cord, Ace, 1966 

Cord supposedly wrote some very bad SF novels as Jack Bertin, though his uncle might actually be the author, but this is a pretty good western crossed with a mystery novel. An ex-gambler owes a favor to an old friend and to pay it off, he agrees to investigate a major robbery and recover a very large amount of cash. To do so, he has to figure out who carried out the robbery and where the money is hidden. But naturally the thieves are not going to just stand by and let him take it back.  7/11/24

Deadly Like a .45 by Giles Lutz, Ace, 1966, writing as Reese Sullivan 

The hero of this short western is a young man who offends – rather seriously – the most powerful man in an small town. The rich man dominates the rest of the community financially and through the use of the gunmen who work for him, who don't always err on the right side of the law.. So our hero and a friend find themselves under siege, part of the time in the town jail, while their enemy plots to take their lives in revenge. Not quite up to Lutz’s usual standards.  7/11/24

 Ambush Reckoning by Clement Hardin, Ace, 1968  

Troy Holden decides to sell the family ranch after his father dies, but the first prospective buyer is chased out of town by another rancher who is known to be involved in crooked deals. The sheriff is not brave enough to be much help. The balance of the story is mostly his troubles with the outlaws, including getting shot himself. There is a subplot about a troubled romance as well. The characters are a bit too stereotyped for me in this one. The villain is too villainous and the protagonist too stiff necked and uncooperative. 6/13/24

The Vengeance Ghost by Giles Lutz (writing as Reese Sullivan) Ace, 1968 

A short but quite enjoyable western. The protagonist has been attacked and left to die in the wilderness in order that his property can be appropriated by power hungry men. But he does not die, and once he has recovered, he launches a clandestine campaign to find out who is responsible for a wave of questionable financial deals, arson, attempted murders, and other crimes. Naturally he does so, but he keeps out of sight until nearly the end and the title suggests the reaction of people to his vigilante activities. I never read Lutz until recently and he is consistently readable.  6/13/24

The Trouble Borrower by Giles Lutz (writing as Reese Sullivan) Ace, 1968 

When his father is ambushed and killed, the protagonist decides to ignore the dying man’s wish that he not seek vengeance. The local sheriff doesn’t like him, so there is little help available from that quarter. Their cattle have also been stolen, and he isn’t going to take that sitting down either. He gets arrested after a fight with two men he thinks were involved and ends up in jail for a short time. The story takes a couple of detours – a man attempting to train dogs to herd cattle and a bunch of dangerous hogs a farmer is trying to introduce to the area. Eventually he finds out who the killers are and gets justice. Not bad at all. 6/1/24

Golden Temptress by Charles Grayson, Ace, 1954 (originally published in 1948) 

Aka The Broken Gate. This mildly interesting adventure novel is set in Indochina during the early years of their wars of independence against the French. The blurb refers to Somerset Maugham and it’s an appropriate comparison. Grayson seems to have written short stories but not novels and I had not heard of him until I stumbled over this book. There is some romance, some treachery, some adventure, some violence, and a pretty good development of the setting. I did find the prose a bit awkward at times, although not fatally so. One of thousands of novels doomed to obscurity, I’m afraid.  5/22/24

Battling Buckeroos by Tim West, Ace, 1962 

This would have been an average western adventure if not crippled by awful dialogue. Some of it was meant to give it an authentic air, but it just comes across as relentlessly juvenile. The plot is about a man who returns to his home town to find out the truth about the loss of his family fortune. He stumbles into what is actually a decent murder mystery plot and bulls his way through to the solution. This could have been a decent novella with another pass on the prose and a major reconstruction of the dialogue. 5/67/24

South to Santa Fe by George Kilrain, Ace, 1953 

This western has a reasonably complex plot, but the prose is sometimes ponderous. There are two main plots. A woman is believed to know the location of a potentially valuable gold mine and a number of unscrupulous people plan to force her to tell them where it is. A preacher decides to launch a personal campaign against a band of Mexican bandits who kidnap women and children and ransom them back to their families. The protagonist is an adventurer who is on his way to California to look for gold. All three are part of a group who are taking an unconventional route to get their, via New Mexico. Their trip faces various hurdles including the bandits, a war party of Comanches, and a determined villain who is after the woman. 4/30/24

Gun Rich by Giles Lutz, Ace, 1962

Western novels rarely broke the established patterns, even those by some of its better writers like Lutz. This one, for example, is about a lawman who decides to track down a killer by pretending to be an outlaw himself, with a friend “chasing” him across the Old West to provide a convincing cover story. The characterization is reasonably well done and the story is strong enough to hold your interest until the end. The ending is a bit perfunctory – the climax is the last two pages – but otherwise not bad at all. 4/25/24

Ride of Fury by Tim Kelly, Ace, 1964 

This is basically a reprise of The Searchers by Alan LeMay, which is a classic western novel. Indian raiders killed his parents and abducted his two younger sisters. Years later, the protagonist hires a man to help him track them down and rescue the two young women. Eventually they are able to identify the right tribe. Rather than fight with them, he is able to buy one of his sisters back, but the other had died and is buried nearby. Not much depth to the characters and the story is rather plodding. 4/2/24

The Blind Trail by Giles A. Lutz (writing as Reese Sullivan), Ace, 1964 

The shotgun guard on a stagecoach is constantly irritating the local marshal, who is pretty obviously corrupt. There has been a string of stage robberies and the reader will have noted that the agent for the mine is almost certainly involved, along with the marshal. When the hero’s close friend is killed, he decides to find out what is going on, and doing so exposes the crooked lawman, the scheme to steal gold shipments, and solves a couple of murders along the way. Fairly good story but rather obvious. 3/24/24

Bloody Hoofs by J. Edward Leithead, Ace, 1952 

This is a very bad western novel by a minor contributor to that genre. The dialogue is particularly bad, almost a parody of the Old West. The conflict is among three ranches none of whose owners are particularly appealing. One has lots of cattle but no water, one has lots of water but few cattle, and one controls all the routes to the outside world. They are not the cooperative sort. The arrival of a newcomer in town turns the simmering feud into open warfare. Fortunately it is quite short. 3/14/24

Bad Man’s Return by William Colt MacDonald, Ace, 1952 (originally published in 1947) 

This is a better than average western with a complicated plot. The chief protagonist is framed for the assumed murder of a marshal, although the man actually recovers. In the meantime, he escapes and attempts to track down the real killer. That brings him to a desert where he rescues a young woman who owns a ranch and who was abducted and left to die. It’s pretty obvious that the manager of the ranch is behind everything. There is a forged will giving him the property if she dies, his foreman has eliminated all of the loyal ranch hands, and the sheriff is little more than a puppet. The good guys prevail, of course, and the villains – including the man who ambushed the marshal – are all brought to ruin. 3/10/24

The Lurking Gun by Clement Hardin, Ace, 1961 

This is a moderately entertaining western with a slightly more complex plot than usual. The protagonist is on the run from two brothers who intend to kill him. He hides in a small Nevada town just as another violent conflict is getting underway. A wounded man is hiding in the same hotel, ministered to by a young woman. There has been some embezzlement going on at a nearby mine and some people want the wounded man dead before he spills the beans. The two separate feuds collide for an exciting finish. 3/4/24

Nemesis of Circle A by Giles Lutz (writing as Reese Sullivan), Ace, 1966 

A typical western revenge story. The grown up son of a family who were burned out of their homestead returns years later seeking revenge on the rancher responsible, his foreman, and his son. The local sheriff spots his hostility immediately although no one seems to recognize him. The rancher has a heart attack and dies and the son is so wasted by disease that he is an object of pity. But the foreman is trying to throw his weight around, as well as to steal his employer’s cattle, and several battles ensue before he is finally brought down. Our hero forgives the son and marries his sister. 3/2/24

The Night It Rained Bullets by Brian Garfield (writing as Brian Wynne, Ace, 1966 

I enjoyed this short western, which covers less than a single day. A small town is troubled by four outlaws who want to kill the local marshall, a rustler who wants to up his game, a professional gambler and gunslinger who has begun to regret his choices in life, a young man who likes drink, guns, and cards all a little too much and with too little sense, and a blizzard so powerful that it makes it difficult to go outside. All of these elements come together and will result in seven dead bodies before the night is over. 2/27/24

Deadman Canyon by Louis Trimble, Ace, 1961

This short novel could be a template for routine western fiction. The wild kid comes home to claim the property he owns. His arch rival is now very rich and dominates the town. The sheriff just wants things to stay peaceful until retirement. The girl he loves has remained loyal. The old ranchhand is willing to risk his life to protect his friends. The chief villain has a derringer hidden in his hat. The hero has a short temper and someone is trying to ambush him. The local judge is honest but ineffective. There is a secret mine. Readable but overly stereotyped. 2/20/24

Cousin Henry by Anthony Trollope, 1879

I'm a bit ambivalent about this one. The story involves two potential heirs to a large estate. One is the niece who has been loyal throughout his life and who has a talent for managing the estate. The other is a nephew who had a bad reputation as a youth but seems to have straightened out and now leads a respectable life. The dying man strongly believes that the property should pass to a man to retain the family name, but at the last minute he writes a new will leaving everything to the niece. The will, however, cannot be found. Nephew Henry is not competent to run the estate and alienates many of the people involved. He secretly knows where the will is, but keeps his mouth shut. He does volunteer to provide the niece with a substantial amount of money. She refuses it outright and repeatedly, and insults him repeatedly even though she has no reason to criticize his intentions or behavior. The will eventually turns up, but frankly I thought the niece was just as unworthy as was her cousin. 1/30/24

The Heroine of the World by Tanith Lee, DAW, 1989 

This was marketed as a fantasy novel but it is actually a tale of the era of the Roman Empire and the pressures and problems it created for women in particular. The protagonist is hampered not only her culture but by some mistakes she makes on her own. She, and to a lesser extent the other female characters, are battling against odds that do not exist for men. Much of this can be related to the modern world as well, although not in the same ways. There is a bit of romance, some rich descriptive language, strongly drawn characters, and moments of great writing, but the novel – which is rather long – is not really a success because it fails to maintain a steady focus on the underlying story. 1/16/24

An Eye for an Eye by Anthony Trollope, 1879 

Following the death of his son, a wealthy man chooses one of his nephews to become his heir and, effectively, his adopted son. The young man insists upon completing a year’s military service in Ireland before moving in to his new home, and there he meets – and seduces – a young woman whose poverty and religious background make her an impossible choice as his wife. Nevertheless, she and her mother are convinced that they are engaged until the death of the uncle brings him the title and he announces clearly that a marriage is impossible. The mother pushes him off a cliff and goes mad. Relatively short and surprisingly frank about sexual escapades. 1/2/24

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