Review: The Night It Rained Bullets

The Night It Rained Bullets by Brian Wynne (Brian Garfield)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Prolific and talented author Brian Garfield, writing as Brian Wynne, wrote several Westerns taking place in the fictional town of Spanish Flat starring hard-boiled Marshal Jeremy Six. Here the town is invaded by three exceedingly psychotic and brutal outlaws during a winter snowstorm, The arrival of a gambler with a gunslinger reputation, and a drunken rich gambling troublemaker add to the explosive situation which soon escalates out of control resulting in Six having to make some hard decisions and resort to some serious violence. I tend to like stories that take place in confined locations due to conditions that the characters don’t have control of, storms, hurricanes, etc. Tarantino’s Hateful Eight comes to mind. A single day compressed timeline ramps up the tension to a blistering pace making this difficult to put down. A fine novel and an easy four stars. 

Here's scan of it. (if you don't mind reading yellowed images in a comic reader)

Review: New Gun For Kingdom City

New Gun For Kingdom City by Ray Hogan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hogan was a prolific writer of Westerns, a contemporary of, and perhaps overshadowed by, Louis L’Amour in the 1960s and ‘70s. The 100 or so pages of Ace Double novelettes seem to be the optimal length for Hogan’s fast-paced and action-packed stories. This one tells the story of a hard-boiled and somewhat shady loner seeking vengeance for his brother’s murder in Kingdom City, a town run by a corrupt and lawless family. Hogan interjects an adversarial US Marshall who is tracking bank robbers and duped mail order bride into the mix and the result is a terrific and lean thriller without an ounce of fat or padding. Hogan’s tales never disappoint and this is a really good one. Four stars.

Review: The Squeeze

The Squeeze by Gil Brewer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Finishes strong after a clunky setup requiring major suspension of disbelief. The squeeze of the title is that everyman accountant Joe Maule loses a bundle gambling and has to repay a mobster by tracking down 260K stolen and hidden by another guy. As I said, major suspension of disbelief required with this plot. It gets even harder to believe following a twist Brewer introduces. But once you get passed that in the first third of the book the action picks up and the story rips along to the end. The dialog seemed out of whack at times, with the mobster sounding like something from a B-movie, and our protagonist - as Brewer's protagonists often are - mostly uncommunicative. What this novel has, however, is another of those great extended series of scenes involving the disposal of a body. Ranks up there with similar scenes in Brewer's The Vengeful Virgin and Satan Is a Woman. Mid-tier Brewer, but the body disposal sections are top-notch and make this one worth tracking down.

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Review: Legacy of the Slash M

Legacy of the Slash M by Ray Hogan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ray Hogan was one of a slew of great authors who were writing Westerns in the shadow of the spectacularly popular Louis L’Amour in the 1960-70s. Sadly most of them are forgotten. Hogan’s works are tightly plotted with terse prose and plenty of action. I really like his Ace Double novellas which are just the right length to showcase his skills. Here Hogan tells the story of Jess Holloway who is summoned by a dying friend to take over his ranch since his family was ill-equipped to do so and they vehemently resent his intrusion. Not surprisingly a range war is on the verge of exploding too. Nothing groundbreaking here, although Hogan does a nice job keeping the story fresh with some interesting characters and dialog. A solid and entertaining 106 pages.

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Review: In a Vanishing Room

In a Vanishing Room by Robert Colby
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Half of a Ace Double from 1961 telling the story of Paul Norris, a down-on-his-luck business man, traveling to NYC for a job interview when unbeknownst to him a highly valued receipt is planted on him. A woman, forewarned that Norris is carrying the receipt, meets him at the airport and hapless Norris, hoping to score, inadvertently gets involved in a criminal smuggling conspiracy. Failing to score, Norris decides to take advantage of the situation by trying to take a cut of the valuable cargo and then gets himself involved way over his head. Norris is very believable character, motivated by sex and money, and turns out to be less hapless than I had initially assumed. The short novel is a taut rollercoaster of chases and twists and turns. Highly recommended.

The ebook is available from Wildside Press and Amazon.

Review: Death House Doll

Death House Doll by Day Keene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you like the classic hard-boiled detective novels, this one fits right in. Keene, as he often did, twists the genre a bit by not using a detective to do the detecting. Here it is an army sergeant on leave checking up on his dead brother's wife and child. As the book begins he's visiting her in prison because she's the death house doll. Plenty of action and twists and turns as the sergeant, a medal of honor winner, takes on hoods and cops as he tries to solve the crime and free his brother's wife from death row before she is executed in five days. Just a couple of things made this clunky. A lot of information is learned through too conveniently over-heard conversations. And then the big summary reveal at the end, although that is a convention of the mystery genre, I wish it could have had a more active ending.

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Review: The Quaking Widow

The Quaking Widow by Robert Colby
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The widow is an attractive young woman whose recently deceased husband left her an impregnable box containing unknown objects of incalculable value to be sold in Florida for $200,000. A hefty chunk of change for 1956. Narrator Burt Keating gets involved for a little romance and a cut of the sale and soon finds out that there are dangerous complications since ruthless criminals will do anything to get that box. I loved the 1950s Florida locations - lost forever to development, and the exceptional plotting where attempts to hide and open the mysterious box takes center stage. Some cat-and-mouse action and a couple of heart-stopping twists round out this superb thriller. Robert Colby is one of my favorite writers and this is one of his best. Highly recommended.

The Ace Double is tough to find. Affordable ebooks are available.

Review: Valley of Violence

Valley of Violence by Edwin Booth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Clay Nichols comes back to the family ranch just in time for an outlaw family to kill his father, shoot him and leave him for dead, and then take over the ranch. Clay falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health not knowing that she is the daughter of the outlaw that killed his father. The author does a fine job with pacing and plot as Clay has to figure out how to confront the outlaws without alienating the lovely daughter. I really loved the dynamic of the nearby town filled with believable characters and the fascinating perspective of the outlaw family, with half of them gone corrupt and evil, and the others weak and complacent. Booth wrote for the pulps and was a very skilled writer. Recommended.

Review: Last Gun at Cabresto

Last Gun at Cabresto by Ray Hogan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rancher Cole Rinnegar is summoned to a distant town by his brother who is being secretly cared for by a beautiful bakery owner. His brother explains that he has robbed a bank and hidden the money before three outlaws critically wounded him. His dying wish is for Cole to retrieve the money and give it back to the bank. The outlaws and others know that Cole’s brother has the money hidden and they are clever and ruthless in seeing if Cole has the money, or is going to get it. Lot of nice twists and action keep the mere 89 pages flying as Cole accepts his mission and finds out that it is far more complex and dangerous than it seemed. Ray Hogan was a top-notch Western writer and this is a fine example of his work.

Review: Battle At Rattlesnake Pass

Battle At Rattlesnake Pass by Tom West
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Mike O’Brien's father is accused of rustling cattle and is killed. Hot-headed O’Brien shoots the fella that killed his father and gets himself tossed into Yuma for five years. Upon release he heads home to Jackass Wells where he is branded as a rustler and shunned. When cattle starts disappearing everyone assumes that it’s his doing. O’Brien befriends a crippled gunslinger and falls for a sheepherder’s daughter as he tries to defend his honor and identify the rustlers. This half of an Ace Double was written by Tom West, who wrote a lot of them. Although copyrighted in 1965 his use of cowboy lingo and vernacular is impressive, much like the pulpsters of a earlier era. Good story and well written. Definitely a throwback to to pulp novellas, even ending with a wedding. Good enough to keep me reading more from Tom West when the mood strikes me.

Here's a bunch of scans of Ace Doubles.

Review: A Trap for Sam Dodge

A Trap for Sam Dodge by Harry Whittington
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sheriff Miles Ringo is gunned down and Sam Dodge comes back to town to find the killer of his old friend. Turns out that Sam and Ringo were once competing for the same girl and the same job, and Sam lost on both counts, inspiring him to leave town to start a ranch.  Sam Dodge has a plan to draw out the killer but ends up creating a trap for himself. Courtroom drama ensues with a nice twist and an unexpected ally. Whittington delivers another propulsive crime thriller with Sam Dodge acting as the detective and protagonist. Sam’s relationship with the steadfast doctor and the soiled dove’s daughter were a couple of highlights for me. Recommended.

Review: The Searching Rider

The Searching Rider by Harry Whittington
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A farmer named Kraylor mounts a lone, suicidal revenge mission against a trio of outlaws that murdered his young son. His wife Hetty implores old flame Matt Logan to go after Kraylor before he gets himself killed. This revenge novella is a razor sharp page-turner set amongst the backdrop of a compelling love triangle. Matt Logan is seriously conflicted. Letting Kraylor die would leave Hetty to himself, and of courser Kraylor wants no help from his wife’s former flame. This emotional turmoil propels a fairly standard revenge plot into something transcendental. The action-packed climax is a highlight as well. Recommended.

I don't see this Ace Double half being reprinted anytime soon so I created ebooks from scanned images that I found online in the name of digital preservation. Download them here:

EPUB - The Searching Rider - Harry Whittington.epub
MOBI - The Searching Rider - Harry Whittington.mobi