Review: Gun Law at Vermillion - Matt Stuart (L.P. Holmes)

Matt Stuart was a pseudonym for L.P. Holmes, one of my favorite Western authors. In fact, GUN LAW AT VERMILLION, published in hardcover by J.B. Lippincott in 1951 and reprinted in paperback by Bantam in 1952, was serialized in the pulp RANCH ROMANCES under Holmes’ real name and the title “Painted Walls” in November and December 1947. I read the Bantam paperback, which has a decent cover by Earl Mayan, although the main figure in this painting looks nothing like the protagonist of the book.

Holmes often used simple, traditional plots. In GUN LAW AT VERMILLION, former Texas Ranger Clay Orde has come to Nevada on the trail of the man he holds responsible for the deaths of his foster parents. Before he can reach his destination, though, the train he’s riding is held up. The robbers are after something unusual, though: They’re out to steal a string of pack mules bound for the town of Vermillion, where they’ll be used by a freight packing company owned by a beautiful young woman who also just happens to be on the same train as Orde.

Orde saves the girl and foils the robbery, of course, and just like that he finds himself smack-dab in the middle of a war between rival freight packing companies. And the one that’s trying to run the girl out of business is owned by, you guessed it, the same guy that Orde has been tracking down! (No bonus points for guessing that. It’s pretty obvious.)

That’s it for the plot. The rest of the book consists of Orde helping the girl and falling in love with her, battling against the schemes of the man he hates, making friends with a Ute Indian called Johnny Buffalo who is a great sidekick, and surviving various ambushes, beatings, and shootouts. And I’m sure you can guess how I reacted to it.

I loved it, of course, and had a great time reading it. Holmes was one of the very best at spinning this kind of yarn. Clay Orde isn’t the most likable protagonist at times, but he has to be pretty tough in order to survive all the punishment that Holmes puts him through.

In addition to the hardcover and paperback editions from the early Fifties, GUN LAW AT VERMILLION was reprinted in paperback by Lancer under Holmes’ name. I haven’t been able to find a date for that edition, but I suspect it was late Sixties/early Seventies. A large print edition came out in the Nineties. So there are copies around, and you might come across one of them. If you’re a fan of traditional Westerns, I think there’s a very good chance you’ll enjoy it. I certainly did.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: 10 Story Western Magazine, October 1944

That is one rough-looking hombre on this issue of 10 STORY WESTERN MAGAZINE. I'm not sure if that cover is by Sam Cherry or Robert Stanley, but it's a mighty good one no matter who painted it. I don't own this issue, but if you do, it looks like a good one to read since it includes stories by L.P. Holmes, Norman A. Fox, Tom W. Blackburn, Philip Ketchum, William Heuman, Gunnison Steele (Bennie Gardner), William R. Cox, and lesser-known authors Morgan Lewis and Joe Payne. It would be hard to find a better lineup of authors in a Western pulp from the mid-Forties.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Five-Novels Monthly, May 1935

Hey, lady, look out for that skull with the glowing eyes! I don't know who painted this cover, but it sure caught my eye when I was scrolling through the Fictionmags Index. FIVE-NOVELS MONTHLY didn't actually publish five novels in each issue; the stories are all novellas or novelettes in a variety of genres. But plenty of good authors and fine fiction appeared in its pages. In this issue there are stories by one of my favorite authors, L.P. Holmes, along with John Murray Reynolds (who wrote the first Ki-Gor novel), L. Ron Hubbard, Reg Dinsmore (don't know him), and Edmond Du Perrier (not familiar with him, either). Hubbard was a regular in this pulp and I don't believe much has been reprinted from it except for his stories. I'll bet there are plenty of good ones there that would be worth reading.

Somewhere They Die - L.P. Holmes

SOMEWHERE THEY DIE is a range war novel. Veteran gun-for-hire Riley Haslam is part of a rough crew brought in to help rancher Syl Overdeck battle his arch-rival, cattleman Hugh Racklyn. Haslam and his companions are jumped by Racklyn’s men as soon as they get off the train. A beautiful young woman named Janet Wilkerson, the daughter of one of Racklyn’s friends, helps Haslam get away from the men who are trying to kill him. But it’s not long before Haslam realizes he’s waltzed into a bad deal and doesn’t want to fight for either of the men who are battling for control of a crucial pass through the mountains. Another opportunity comes along that offers Haslam a chance to put his violent past behind him, but to grab it, he’ll have to be surrounded by enemies who want to kill him first . . .

As you can tell by that description, SOMEWHERE THEY DIE, published in hardback by Little, Brown in 1955, reprinted in paperback by Bantam in 1956 and Popular Library in 1976 (the edition I read, with a nice wraparound cover), is a very traditional Western novel when it comes to the plot. But since the author is L.P. Holmes, you can also count on it being very well written. I’m not sure any author has been better than Holmes when it comes to taking a standard plot and elevating it to something else with superb writing and excellent characterization. Holmes at his best—and this novel won the Spur Award for Best Western Novel from Western Writers of America—gives you the characterization of Ernest Haycox and the setting and action of Louis L’Amour. For my money, he’s better than both of them, and I like Haycox and L’Amour.

This particular novel has not one but three despicable villains, a romance angle that’s low-key but very effective, a top-notch supporting cast, some poignant moments (yeah, you knew all along that character wasn’t going to make it, but the death is still a gut punch to the reader), some brutal fistfights, and a very sympathetic protagonist in Riley Haslam. My only quibble is that a couple of plot angles are never really resolved, and they could have been without much trouble.

Overall, SOMEWHERE THEY DIE may be the best L.P. Holmes novel I’ve read so far. I’m glad I still have a bunch by him to read. Highly recommended.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Romances, July 1931

WESTERN ROMANCES was Dell's answer to RANCH ROMANCES, and this somewhat awkward cover certainly looks like it could have come off an issue of RANCH ROMANCES from that era. I don't know the artist. I can't complain about the quality of the authors inside: L.P. Holmes, Leslie Scott (as A. Leslie), Frank Robertson, Lawrence A. Keating, Eric Howard, Wilton West, and a couple of forgotten pulpsters, John A. Chase and William Wills Bradford. I don't own this issue, but with Holmes, Scott, and Robertson inside, I would read it if I did.

The Maverick Star - L.P. Holmes

I usually read several L.P. Holmes novels every year. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s become one of my favorite Western authors, and since I came to his work fairly late in my life, there are still a bunch of his novels that I haven’t read yet. I won’t get to all of them, but he’s always reliable when I need an entertaining Western yarn.

The most recent one I’ve read by him is THE MAVERICK STAR, published as a paperback original by Ace Books in 1969. I’m pretty sure this isn’t a reprint of one of Holmes’ stories from the Western pulps, where he was very prolific in the Twenties, Thirties, and Forties. It begins with the funeral of a veteran lawman who, as sheriff, has kept the peace between two feuding cattle barons whose ranches are the biggest in the area. Each of those cattle barons has a hand-picked man he wants to replace the sheriff, but instead the job goes to the town marshal . . . who only packs the star for half an hour before he’s gunned down, shot in the back.

The county commissioners still don’t want to give the job to one of the other candidates, so they turn to Logan Keogh, the foreman of the other big ranch in the area. With considerable reluctance, Keogh accepts, knowing that he’ll probably have a target on his back, too. And sure enough, there are attempts on his life as he tries to keep the feuding cattle barons from going to war against each other and find out who killed the previous sheriff before the shadowy murderer succeeds again.

THE MAVERICK STAR is a well-paced traditional Western yarn with a little more of a mystery angle than some, and I don’t mind admitting that I didn’t figure out who the killer was ahead of time. The solution actually took me a little by surprise. The action scenes are excellent, although the book probably could have used a few more of them. By the time this book came out, Holmes had been a professional writer for more than forty years, and it’s not uncommon for an author’s work not to have quite as much fire and passion after they’ve been in the game for that long.

But like a good wide receiver in football who may have lost a step in speed, Holmes can still get by on savvy and experience. He knows what he’s doing, and THE MAVERICK STAR is a solid, entertaining tale that kept me turning the pages. I enjoyed it and think it’s worth reading if you’re a fan of traditional Westerns. That’s my beat-up copy in the scan, by the way.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Thrilling Ranch Stories, December 1934

Now there's an Angry, Gun-Totin' Redhead for yuh! Thet cowboy with her don't look so stalwart, though, and there's no sign of a Wounded Old Geezer. THRILLING RANCH STORIES was the Thrilling Group's answer to RANCH ROMANCES, but the stories had plenty of action, too, judging by most of the covers. This issue features stories by L.P. Holmes, A. Leslie Scott, Cliff Farrell, Syl McDowell, Stephen Payne, Wilton West, and house-name Jackson Cole. All those hombres knew how to burn plenty of powder in their yarns.

Wolf Brand - L.P. Holmes

WOLF BRAND is a short novel by L.P. Holmes that first appeared in the August 1942 issue of ACTION STORIES (with a cover by Norman Saunders) and was reprinted in the hardback duo DOOM PATROL, which is where I read it. I’ve mentioned numerous times that Holmes is one of my favorite Western authors, and as expected, he didn’t let me down with this one.

As usual with one of his stories, the plot is traditional: The railroad has come to a valley that’s shared uneasily by cattlemen and homesteaders, and when the evil railroad manager tries to swindle the settlers out of their land, it sets up a clash between different factions of cattlemen, one led by Henry Marsten, who hates the homesteaders and wants them out of the valley, even if means siding with the shady railroad deal, and our Stalwart Hero Vike Gunnison, to whom fair play is more important than whether you raise cows or crops. So we have cattlemen vs. homesteaders, cattlemen vs. cattlemen, and an evil railroad boss trying to take advantage of the situation who brings in a hired gunman and his gang of killers. Shootouts, raids, and the sort of brutal fistfight that turns up in a lot of Holmes’ yarns ensue. Oh, and two beautiful young women for Gunnison to choose between. There’s a late twist that’s not really unexpected, but it works very well.

I had a wonderful time reading this one. Holmes may not have pushed the boundaries of the genre, but he did a great job of working within them. WOLF BRAND is packed with incident and well-developed characters. Vike Gunnison is a likable but pretty standard hero, but the women in his life are complex enough that the romantic triangle aspect of this book is particularly effective. Not all the characters turn out to be as good or bad as you might expect, either. And the action scenes are great, including that fistfight and some epic gun battles.

If you’re a fan of traditional Westerns, I can’t recommend the work of L.P. Holmes highly enough. WOLF BRAND is a top-notch yarn, one of the best I’ve read by him so far.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: All Western Magazine, December 1941

I certainly could be wrong, but the cover on this issue of ALL WESTERN MAGAZINE looks like Sam Cherry's work. If it is by Cherry, it's one of his earliest pulp covers. ALL WESTERN tends to get overlooked in lists of the top Western pulps, but Dell kept it going for a long time, with decent covers and plenty of stories by top-notch authors. This issue includes stories by L.P. Holmes, Norman A. Fox, Claude Rister, Rolland Lynch, Frank Carl Young, and a couple of writers I haven't heard of, Mart Walsh and Gan Rork. Rork has only two stories listed in the Fictionmags Index and Walsh only one, so those might be real names or might not be.

Outcast's Doom Patrol - L.P. Holmes

This short novel appeared originally in the March/April 1937 issue of BIG-BOOK WESTERN MAGAZINE, was reprinted as “Doom Patrol” in DOOM PATROL: A WESTERN DUO (Five Star, 2013), and exists on-line as a PDF of the original pulp appearance, which is how I read it. In recent years L.P. Holmes has become one of my favorite Western authors, so when I needed a quick break between other things, “Outcast’s Doom Patrol” seemed well-nigh perfect. As it turns out, that was an excellent choice.

This yarn begins where it might seem more likely to end: with rancher Buck Comstock found guilty of murder for gunning down another rancher and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Since it quickly becomes obvious that Buck is the hero of this tale, you might suspect there’s more to the story. And you’d be right, because only a few pages later, we discover that Leek Jaeger and Frank Cutts, owners of another ranch in the area, have paid off the jury to convict Buck. Buck committed the killing, all right, but it was self-defense, not murder, because Jaeger and Cutts set up the shooting by framing Buck for rustling. Buck escapes from jail and sets out to prove what really happened and who’s behind it.

That proves to be complicated, because the new owner of the dead man’s ranch is his beautiful niece, and Buck falls for her as soon as he encounters her, vowing to protect her ranch from Jaeger and Cutts, who have their eyes on that spread, too. Buck not only has to dodge the sheriff and his posse, but also a deadly, snake-blooded gunman brought in by his two enemies to make sure he doesn’t survive to expose them.

As you can tell from that plot, “Outcast’s Doom Patrol” is about as traditional a Western as you’re going to find, but that’s typical of L.P. Holmes, who seldom if ever broke any new ground in his plots. But he was among the very best at working within those plots and elevating them with his smooth, vivid prose and his excellent character development. That’s evident in this story from the complicated, realistic relationship between Buck and Jean Harper. They’re both drawn to each other, but the undeniable fact that Buck killed her uncle stands between them, despite the circumstances of the shooting.

“Outcast’s Doom Patrol” has plenty of what I love about the pulp Westerns going for it: a likable, stalwart hero; a strong heroine who’s not whiny or clingy; some colorful sidekicks; not just one but three despicable villains; and numerous scenes full of well-described, breakneck action. The final battle is excellent. Maybe things go on just a tad bit too long after the gunsmoke clears, but I’ll cut Holmes some slack on that because of how entertaining the story is overall. I raced through this one and had a great time reading it. If you’re a fan of traditional Westerns, I give it a high recommendation.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Leading Western, April 1945

This is the first issue of LEADING WESTERN, a late entry in the Western pulp field from Trojan Publishing Corporation, the outfit behind the Spicy and Speed pulp imprints. I like the cover (I don't know the artist), and there's a strong line-up of authors inside. The lead novella is by L.P. Holmes, and also on hand are Giff Cheshire, Laurence Donovan, Victor Rousseau writing as Lew Merrill, and Tonto Green, author of only a handful of stories, all for the same publisher, which makes me think that might have been a pseudonym or house-name. Either way, the other authors in this issue are enough to make it worth reading.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Ranch Romances, Third April Number, 1950

RANCH ROMANCES was published every two weeks and referred to the issues as the First Number and the Second Number for each month. Not many months lined up just right to have three issues published in them, but clearly April 1950 did, because this is the Third April Number, 1950. With another very good cover by Kirk Wilson, who did some fine work for RANCH ROMANCES. The best-known authors inside this issue are L.P. Holmes, Wayne D. Overholser, and Robert Moore Williams. Also on hand are lesser-known authors Pat Johns, A. Kenneth Brent, and Ennen Reeves Hall, with a reprint from THRILLING RANCH STORIES.

Saturday Morning Western Pulps: Western Trails, November 1939

This great cover by Rafael de Soto from WESTERN TRAILS was also used on one side of an Ace Double Western (see below). WESTERN TRAILS and later Ace Books were both owned by A.A. Wyn, so I'm sure this isn't the only case where covers from the Ace Western pulps later showed up on Ace Double paperbacks. This particular issue looks like a good one, with stories by L.P. Holmes, Wayne D. Overholser, Tom J. Hopkins, Claude Rister, and Joe Archibald, among others. I've found WESTERN TRAILS and its sister publication, WESTERN ACES, to be consistently good, and of course I love the Ace Double Westerns. I think I've read Leslie Scott's THE BRAZOS FIREBRAND, but it's been so long ago I'm not sure anymore. Maybe I'll dig it out and read it again.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Frontier Stories, Spring 1947

I don't know who the artist is, but I like the cover on this issue of FRONTIER STORIES. There's plenty to like about the authors in this issue, too, including L.P. Holmes, Dan Cushman, Joseph Chadwick, Lee E. Wells, and M. Howard Lane. I've seen white horses with that same design on them in red paint on other FRONTIER STORIES covers, so that artist must have liked the image. 

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Ranch Romances, Second May Number 1946

Most of the RANCH ROMANCES covers in the mid-Forties were still a little on the sweet side, but they were starting to show some action now and then, as in this one by an artist I'm not familiar with, Will Gimby. There are certainly some hardboiled authors inside this issue, H.A. DeRosso and Joseph Chadwick, along with RANCH ROMANCES regulars L.P. Holmes, Stephen Payne, and James Routh. Appears to be an issue well worth reading. 

Forgotten Books: Night Marshal - L.P. Holmes

As I’ve mentioned before, I only started reading L.P. Holmes in the past ten years or so, even though I saw paperbacks of his Western novels around all the time when I was a kid. I’m not sure why I never picked up any of them. However, that’s worked to my benefit since I’ve found that I really enjoy his work, and there are still quite a few books and stories by him left for me to read.

Most recently, I read his novel NIGHT MARSHAL, published in hardback by Dodd, Mead in 1961 and reprinted in paperback by Bantam in 1964, the edition I read. That’s my copy in the scan. I don't know who painted the cover.

The protagonist is Chris Waddell, a down-on-his-luck lawman who takes the job of night marshal working for an old friend and mentor of his who’s the top lawman in the wild Montana mining town Midas Hill. Problem is, Waddell is still a straight-shooter while his old friend and boss has gone soft and corrupt and is under the thumb of the saloon owner and mining magnates. If Waddell wants to bring any real law and order to Midas Hill, he’ll have to buck all of them, which means he’ll have enemies on all sides.

From what I’ve read of his work, Holmes never strayed from the traditional Western elements but did an excellent job of working within that framework. I’ll be honest: while it’s enjoyable, NIGHT MARSHAL is the weakest novel of his that I’ve read so far. The plot meanders along and is really slow to develop, he sets up several characters and conflicts but then never does anything with them (speaking in particular of a potential romantic triangle that he never does anything with and seems to forget, as well as never resolving the question of whether a particular character is one of the bad guys or not), and the book ends in rather hurried fashion.

That said, Holmes does a fine job with the setting, the dialogue is good, Waddell is a likable, easy to root for protagonist, and the final shoot-out is effective even though it could have been longer and more dramatic. I’m glad I read the book, even though NIGHT MARSHAL isn’t one that I’d give to somebody who has never read Holmes before. If you’re already a fan of his work and come across a copy, I wouldn’t pass it up.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Ranch Romances, Second April Number, 1949

That's a pretty, um, sultry cover for a late Forties issue of RANCH ROMANCES. But not surprisingly, I like it. I don't know who the artist was. Inside this issue are stories by some excellent authors, including L.P. Holmes, Wayne D. Overholser, Ray Townsend, Wilbur S. Peacock, and Walt Sheldon. Clearly RANCH ROMANCES was starting to take on some of the hardboiled tone that was common in it during the Fifties.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Trails, July 1947

A nice cover by A. Leslie Ross on this issue of WESTERN TRAILS, and a pretty strong lineup of authors inside, too, including two of my favorites, L.P. Holmes and J. Edward Leithead (twice, once as himself and once as Wilson L. Covert). Others contributing stories are Joe Archibald, Nat McKelvey, Mel Holt, Art Kercheval, and Charles Irwin, not big name pulpsters (with the possible exception of Archibald) but solid writers.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Thrilling Ranch Stories, July 1948

One of the things I really like about Western pulp covers is that while there are plenty of "damsel in distress" type covers, there are also a lot that feature women who are just as tough and competent as the men. This cover by Sam Cherry from the July 1948 issue of THRILLING RANCH STORIES is a good example. There's not even a guy in sight, other than the hand of the one holding the gun, and that blonde is about to make him wish their trails had never crossed. Inside this issue are stories by some fine writers: L.P. Holmes, Giles A. Lutz, Stephen Payne, Samuel Mines, Joe Archibald, Cliff Walters, and Gladwell Richardson. The so-called Western romance pulps had plenty to like for traditional Western readers.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Speed Adventure Stories, July 1945

I think if I had been around during the Thirties and Forties, I would have been writing for the Spicy and Speed line of pulps. This issue of SPEED ADVENTURE STORIES features three authors better known for their Westerns: L.P. Holmes, Giff Cheshire, and Frank Bonham. Also on hand are the legendary E. Hoffmann Price and Spicy/Speed stalwarts Victor Rousseau (writing under his own name for a change, instead of Lew Merrill, Hugh Speer, or Clive Trent) and Edwin Truett Long, writing under the very transparent pseudonym of Edwin Truett. I've enjoyed stories by all these authors and know I would enjoy the yarns they've contributed here, too.