Review: The Long Vendetta - Clifton Adams

Buck Coyle is a former race car driver, a World War II vet who was the commander of a tank crew, and the owner of a successful body shop and garage in a small city. He’s a widower, his wife (also a race car driver) having been killed in a crash on the track a year earlier. But he has his successful business and a beautiful new girlfriend he intends to propose to. It’s a pretty good life.

Until somebody hires a hit man to kill Buck.

That’s the setup of THE LONG VENDETTA by Clifton Adams, the second book in the recent double volume from Stark House reprinting two of Adams’ crime novels. From there it’s full-tilt suspense and action as Buck, who is also the narrator of this novel, tries to discover who wants him dead. Sometimes he works with the police lieutenant assigned to the case, but at times, circumstances force Buck to strike out on his own. One thing is pretty sure: the origins of this vendetta go all the way back to the war and a tragedy that occurred during that conflict. Will Buck figure out what’s going on, though, in time to save his life and the life of his girlfriend?

THE LONG VENDETTA was published originally in hardcover by Avalon Books in 1963 under the pseudonym Jonathan Gant. Adams, who is one of my favorite Western authors, wrote only five crime novels, and Stark House has now reprinted all of them. This one is a great yarn with a likable protagonist. It barrels along to a final showdown that features some real white-knuckle writing from Adams. His background serving in the Tank Corps in both North Africa and Europe gives the story a gritty authenticity. For what it's worth, I figured out the big twist before the end, but it took me a while.

This edition features a fine introduction by Eric Compton, as I mentioned when I reviewed the other novel included in it, THE VERY WICKED, and that intro just makes this volume even more worthwhile. It’s available in e-book and paperback editions on Amazon, and I think it’s excellent and well worth reading.

Memorial Day

Many of the pulps had military-themed covers during World War II, such as this one by Rafael De Soto, and some of the stories in this issue of ARGOSY are war-related, too, judging by their titles: "Armchair Admiral No. 2" by Fletcher Pratt, "WACS, Macs and Warlocks" by Theodore Roscoe, "Always Victorious" by Jacland Marmur, "Red Sun Over Bengal" by Kenneth Perkins, "Flight to Nowhere" by Leslie T. White, "Hell Afloat" by Eustace L. Adams, and "Somali Contraband" by E. Hoffmann Price. I don't own this issue, so I can't check those stories to make sure they're actually war yarns, but they sound like it. I'm old enough to remember when Memorial Day was on May 31, no matter what day of the week it fell on, but I don't want to be too much of a curmudgeon and complain about how they've gone to moving holidays around.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: North-West Romances, Summer 1941

Nothing like a Norman Saunders cover on an issue of NORTH-WEST ROMANCES. The two go together perfectly. This issue features a story by one of my favorite authors, Frederick Nebel (a reprint from a 1932 issue of ACTION STORIES), as well as yarns by William Byron Mowery, Ralph R. Perry, Owen Finbar (who was really A. DeHerries Smith, who wrote a lot of stories for the Northerns under his own name), Dan O'Rourke (who was also A. DeHerries Smith), Reg Dinsmore, Evan M. Post, and house-name John Starr (quite possibly A. DeHerries Smith, too). I love Northerns and ought to read more of them.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: .44 Western Magazine, February 1941

This fine cover by Albin Henning is another prime example of how you couldn't sit down to enjoy a game of poker in the Old West without a gunfight breaking out. The hombre swinging in on a rope with his gun blazing is a nice twist, though. Some good authors are on hand in this issue of .44 WESTERN MAGAZINE: Stone Cody (Thomas E. Mount), John G. Pearsol, Eli Colter, J.E. Grinstead, Ralph Berard (Victor H. White), and the lesser known Archie Giddings and Jay A. Constant, whose story in this issue is his only credit in the Fictionmags Index.

Review: Montana Bad Man - Roe Richmond

A friend of mine recommended this book to me recently, citing an unusual degree of sexual obsession and angst for a paperback Western published in 1957. Well, I found that intriguing enough to scout out a copy, and that’s it in the scan. I’ve read it now, and my friend was right. MONTANA BAD MAN isn’t as graphic as the Adult Westerns that began appearing a decade or so later, but it’s certainly got a lot more sex in it than you’d expect from a book of its vintage.

The protagonist of this novel (it’s hard to call him the hero) is Faris Dodrill, one of many characters who have somewhat odd names. I don’t know if author Roe Richmond was trying to be more realistic in naming his characters, but if he was, he went a little overboard. That said, I got used to it and it didn’t really bother me. As the book opens, Dodrill is working as the driver of a freight wagon. He and his brother were raised on a ranch in Montana, but after their father was killed by outlaws, they set off on an unsuccessful vengeance quest after the owlhoots. Eventually, they wind up marrying half-sisters whose father owns the freight company. Faris goes to work for his father-in-law while his brother Tucker returns to the family ran to try to keep it going. Faris hates the job, he and his wife have come to despise each other, and she regularly cheats on him with the local deputy sheriff.

Then, in the first of many tragic twists, Faris finds himself on the run from a murder charge with a big bounty on his head. He’s not really guilty, but circumstances keep pushing him farther and farther over the line into becoming an actual rustler and outlaw.

Even though it’s a relatively short book, maybe 60,000 words, MONTANA BAD MAN takes on an epic scale as it covers a year in the life of Faris Dodrill. Faris covers a lot of ground during that time, too, around Montana and Wyoming, visiting Devil’s Tower, the Hole in the Wall, and Cheyenne. He makes friends and enemies, buries murdered friends and loved ones, engages in numerous shootouts, cavorts with several women, and even winds up back on the other side of the law for a time, working for the cattleman’s association as a range detective. It’s all building up a final showdown with the mortal enemies who have harmed him the worst.

Although it’s not quite as much of a kitchen sink book, MONTANA BAD MAN reminds me a little of my favorite Louis L’Amour novel, TO TAKE A LAND, which has that same epic feel and numerous plotlines. Roe Richmond’s work is hit or miss with me, but most of his stand-alone novels and stories are excellent. This novel certainly falls into this category. Only an ending I found somewhat dissatisfying keeps it from being one of the top two or three books I’ve read this year. Richmond’s hardboiled prose is relentless, and his characters, although mostly unlikable, are compelling. Like the T.V. Olsen novel I read a few weeks ago, MONTANA BAD MAN is a thoroughly bleak and grim yarn, but that’s all right some of the time. If you’re a reader of Western noir, this is one of the best I’ve come across, and I give it a high recommendation. It's never been reprinted as far as I know, and I appear to have gotten the last reasonably priced copy on-line, but it's worth keeping your eyes open for one.

Review: American Treasure Hunters: The Hunt for Confederate Gold

I’ve written here before about how much I enjoyed the boy’s adventure series I read as a kid, especially Rick Brant, the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift Jr., and the Three Investigators. As far as I know, that sort of series hasn’t existed for a long time. Until now.

THE HUNT FOR CONFEDERATE GOLD is the first book in a new series called AMERICAN TREASURE HUNTERS, written by Andrew M. Dare and published by Ark Press. The publisher’s website does a better job of summarizing it than I can, so I’m going to quote it:

“Ben Prescott, Porter Rockwell, and Latch McRae couldn’t be more different. Ben is a home-schooled brainiac. Porter is the starting quarterback for the Ridgeport Raiders, and Latch is a grease-smudged prodigy who never saw an engine he couldn’t take apart and set to purring. Yet the three have been friends forever, drawn together by a shared passion: treasure hunting for the forgotten loot of American history. 

During a raucous Fourth of July fireworks battle, the trio stumbles onto a lost Confederate blockade-runner. Locked inside: a rusted safe, a sealed pouch, and the first breadcrumb to a vanished fortune in Confederate government gold, missing since the final days of the War Between the States. 

They’re not alone. A bitter ex-employee of Ben’s father and a well-funded outsider are willing to lie, steal, and threaten to take the treasury for themselves, and wipe out the story of its origin. 

Now the hunters must face danger and work their way through knotty clues and ciphers as they seek a long-lost map drawn in invisible ink on the back of a letter from General Robert E. Lee himself! It’s a map that may point to one of America’s richest lost treasures.”

My reaction to reading this book is pretty simple. If I’d read it when I was 13 years old, I would have thought it’s one of the greatest books ever written. From the perspective of being 60 years on down the road from that point, I still thoroughly enjoyed it and think it’s an excellent yarn. Ben, Porter, and Latch are fine protagonists, and the story moves along at a fast pace through a well-constructed historical mystery.

Of the vintage series I mentioned above, the one I’m most reminded of by THE HUNT FOR CONFEDERATE GOLD is the great Rick Brant series. Like Rick and Scotty in those books, the heroes of this series are old enough and athletic enough to take care of themselves in the action scenes, and there are a few hints of espionage and intrigue, the way Rick and Scotty used to find themselves helping out JANIG, the Joint Army Navy Intelligence Group (that’s right, I remember what the initials stand for after 60 years). The emphasis in this series is more on history than on science, but you get the same mixture of educational stuff with action, mystery, a little romance (that angle is handled quite well), and a little humor.

I enjoyed this book a lot and look forward to the others in the series. It’s available on Amazon in e-book and hardcover editions, or you can get it directly from the publisher’s website here. If you’re looking for a book a teenage boy would find entertaining, or you’re an old geezer revisiting your own reading as a kid, I highly recommend it. 

Movies I've Missed Until Now: The Duchess (2008)

When you’re watching a movie called THE DUCHESS starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes (yep, that guy again), you have a pretty good idea what to expect: big hair and low-cut, fancy dresses on the ladies, and powdered wigs, tricorn hats, and puffy shirts for the fellas. That’s what you get in this 2008 historical drama, along with political shenanigans and lurid love affairs. Unfortunately, for a high-class soap opera, THE DUCHESS is pretty slow and stodgy and never works up any real momentum. It’s very well-made and well-acted, and we watched it all the way to the end, but I can’t really recommend it unless you’re a big fan of British period dramas. A few swordfights might have helped it a lot.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Wings, Winter 1948/49

In the late Forties, WINGS got away from the usual aerial dogfights that most aviation/air war pulps used and started putting good-looking women on their covers, probably in a shameless attempt to boost sales. I have a hunch it would have worked on me, because I like this cover quite a bit. I have no idea who painted it. The authors inside are pretty darned good, too, starting with iconic aviation pulpster Arch Whitehouse, who in this issue brings back his characters the Casket Crew, the stars of a series going back to 1931. A volume of early Casket Crew stories has been published by Age of Aces Books, and of course I have a copy, but equally inevitably, I haven't read it yet. Also on hand in this issue are Walt Sheldon, a prolific pulp writer and a well-respected paperbacker, J.L. Bouma, best remembered for his Westerns, Alfred Coppel Jr., known for his science fiction and mainstream novels, and an assortment of names unfamiliar to me: Cornelius Morgan, Scott Sumner, Frank Harvey, and Joe James. Whitehouse, Sheldon, Coppell, and Bouma would make this issue worthwhile for me.

UPDATE: Eagle-eyed commenter b.t. not only identified this cover as probably being by Norman Saunders, he even provided the information that Saunders based it on an earlier cover from WINGS COMICS #93 by Bob Lubbers, which you can see below. Many thanks!

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Ranch Romances, Second August Number, 1957

This is a pulp that I own and read recently. That’s my copy in the scan, and it’s in halfway decent shape for a change. The cover art is by Sam Cherry. Most of his covers aren’t signed, but you can see his signature in the lower right corner of this one, although it’s backwards, meaning the art was flipped.

Edwin Booth is a familiar name to me because he wrote at least a dozen Western novels, many of them published in the Ace Doubles line. I don’t recall ever reading anything by him until now. He’s the author of this issue’s lead novella, “Once a Killer”, which finds the protagonist, Fred Irwin, returning to the hometown he left ten years earlier after killing a man in a gunfight. Everybody figured that meant he had turned into an outlaw, but in reality, he’s become a hard-working cowboy and finally saved up enough money to buy a ranch of his own. Unfortunately, he finds himself in the middle of trouble orchestrated by a crooked saloon owner who wants to take over the town and all the surrounding ranches. Naturally, Irwin comes to the aid of an old rancher and the man’s beautiful daughter, and more trouble ensues. This is a very standard plot, but Booth provides some nice action scenes and a few well-developed characters. Overall, though, his style is definitely on the bland side, and that keeps this story from having the impact it might have had otherwise. It’s not bad, and I would read Booth’s work again, but I’m not going to be on the lookout for it.

Frank C. Robertson was a long-time, very prolific Western pulpster and novelist. His short story in this issue, “Practical Woman”, is a contemporary Western set in the Fifties, a domestic drama about the marriage of a spinster schoolteacher and a hard-headed rancher. It’s well-written, as all of Robertson’s work that I’ve read is, but it’s very low-key and unexciting and really peters out in the end. Robertson was a good author, but this isn’t a very good story.

Thankfully, old reliable Walker A. Tompkins comes along next with the novelette “The Deputy’s Daughter”. In this one, a young cowboy who buys a ranch finds himself framed for murder by the local cattle baron who wants to take over his spread. His only hope is the deputy sheriff’s beautiful blond daughter, who takes a likin’ to him and believes he’s innocent. This is a fast-moving, very entertaining yarn that suffers a little from the fact that it’s not a novella or even an actual novel. I felt like it could have used some room to develop the plot and characters more, and because of that, the ending feels a little rushed. I still liked it quite a bit, though.

“Heritage of Wrath” by M.E. Bradshaw (Marjory Bradshaw) is a Mountie story about a young RCMP officer who has to arrest the father of the girl he loves for murder, which makes her break off their engagement because she refuses to believe he’s guilty. Our Mountie hero has to dig deeper into the case to find out what really happened. This is an okay tale with a somewhat disappointing ending. Bradshaw published two dozen stories during the Fifties, all of them in RANCH ROMANCES.

Stephen Payne was very prolific, turning out several hundred stories for various Western pulps and digests between 1925 and 1970, along with a handful of novels. “Killer’s Conscience” in this issue is narrated by a 14-year-old ranch kid whose father was convicted of a murder he didn’t commit and sent to prison. The narrator’s encounter with an outlaw may hold the key to clearing his father’s name. This is a solid, well-written story that I enjoyed.

There’s also an installment of a serialized novel, Philip Ketchum’s THE STALKERS, that I didn’t read. I may have the book version of that one. I’ll have to check my shelves.

I should mention, as well, that there are several excellent interior illustrations by Everett Raymond Kinstler. I don’t talk about interior illustrations much, and I probably should. Kinstler was one of the very best at those.

Overall, considering how highly I rate many of the 1950s issues of RANCH ROMANCES, this one is probably a little below average. All of the stories kept me reading, but none of them really stood out as being top-notch, either. The ones by Tompkins and Payne are easily the best of the bunch, and the one by Booth is worth reading. Maybe don’t rush to your shelves to see if you have a copy, though.

Review: Run to the Mountain - T.V. Olsen

A while back I read T.V. Olsen’s hardboiled Western novel DAY OF THE BUZZARD and enjoyed it quite a bit, so I decided to give RUN TO THE MOUNTAIN a try. To be honest, both novels are available together in a double volume that you can find on Kindle Unlimited, which is the version I read instead of the original paperback from Gold Medal shown above.

With winter closing in, drifting cowboy Bowie Candler seems to be out of luck. He’s on foot after a mountain lion kills his horse, and bad weather is threatening. But wouldn’t you know it, things just get worse for him. He finds some horses and takes one of them, but that just gets him in trouble with the vicious son of a local rancher. Bowie winds up working on the ranch, which is a hotbed of lust, ambition, and tragedy. RUN TO THE MOUNTAIN is part noir, part soap opera, and part hardboiled Western (the ranch is losing stock to rustlers, which is the most traditional Western part of the plot).

Olsen writes really well, spinning his yarn in tough, terse prose that does a particularly good job with the harsh Colorado landscape. (I think it’s Colorado; Olsen never gets specific about that, but people go to Denver.) The supporting cast is excellent, with a number of truly despicable villains and a great sidekick for Bowie.

But man, this is a dark book! Several sympathetic characters die, Bowie isn’t a very effective protagonist most of the time, and although there are a few slivers of hope here and there, the ranch is a pretty grim place. I haven’t read a lot of Olsen’s work yet, but he reminds me of Lewis B. Patten and H.A. DeRosso. I think he writes well enough that I want to read more of his books, but I may try one of his historical adventure novels next, instead of another Western.