William MacLeod Raine (1871–1954)

I had an old and disintegrating reader copy of this one and picked up a pristine (for its age) paperback copy of this one. I have been making more of an effort to push the boundaries of my Western genre reading beyond just Robert E. Howard and Louis L’Amour (strange bedfellows I know). So, I cracked this one open. My reader copy quickly fell apart after the first five chapters, so I cracked open the paperback. I was not disappointed.
I really appreciated the author’s use of natural imagery which is what initially sucked me into the novel. However, the casual use of the N-word booted me out of it each of the four times the author used it, granted this novel was written sometime in the early 1920s. This unfortunate ugly remnant of the past is all that really drags this novel down for me. The twists and turns of the story were enjoyable and somewhat unexpected.
The novel starts on the plains of Texas following a cowpuncher on the trail, David Sanders, who soon falls into the mechanizations of two conmen/gunfighters who are also friends of the cattle foreman which incident introduces his personal antagonist, Dug Doble. This first third of the novel follows the average template for a Western then the turn comes. Dave, the young cowpuncher is convicted of the murder of one of the conmen (Dug’s half-brother). The book quickly skips from going into the jailhouse to coming back out on parole. From there the hard luck portion of the story happens along with several confrontations with the surviving murderous conman and the cattle foreman joined by a third desperado under the employ of a rich villain, Steelman lifelong enemy of Dave’s cattleman boss Crawford. Eventually, the last third begins when Dave Sanders meets his old friends receiving gainful employment after a short series of real-world tests exhibiting Dave’s cleverness and sheer force of will. From there the story becomes an Old West Oil Baron thriller concerning the “Crawford-Steelman feud” mentioned in the first few pages. The occasional shootout occurs with the main villain’s oilwell sabotaging men including Dug Doble.
I enjoyed the story moving from the dusty cattle trail to a flash flood after a dam is blasted to the oil fields to fighting a massive wildfire. The story focus was on action and less so with gunfights and fisticuffs but still attached a minor romance between the hero and the boss’ daughter as per the Western genre cliché. I also did not like that in the last chapter the hero treats her like an object in a play at Western chivalry. However, for all its dated weaknesses I really did enjoy this novel.
I liked how the protagonist progresses from a naïve care-free boy on the range to a hardened ex-convict just trying to get by while getting ostracized by society for his crime then letting his protective shell fall away at the end from the gentle touch of his lady (it is a classical Western after all). I also liked how he rarely wore a gun and was still able to deal with anything that came his way. However, I think the author did a disservice to Dave as his “crime” turned out to be a frame job by Dug Doble who accidentally shot his half-brother while shooting at Dave as the cowpuncher stole his horse back from them. It would have sat better with me that Dave would have that black mark on his soul forever because he didn’t mean to kill that man, but his actions led directly to it. He served his time and now he has to go on. This colors the character swirling in some gray into the white hat. The author possibly realized this and still had his prison time weighed heavily on him even after the vindication of his crime. This implied to me that the hero of the story was raped in prison though I don’t think the author intended this. The same kind of implication is hinted at when Dave rescues Joyce from her kidnapper Dug Doble. I’m not sure that’s what the author intended there either. So, I guess that could be either a weakness or a strength in the writing style or maybe both.
Overall, I would recommend this book to those wanting to read a “standard” Western genre story with the caveat that it was written in the 1920s so there are a few instances of the n-word and very strictly defined gender roles between men and women. Other than that, if you can pick this up somewhere, do so, it does scratch the itch.… (more)

The Sloan family has been harassed by Anse Cottrell and his gunmen for years. His brother, Sumner, had been railroaded into prison on trumped up charges planned by Anse. Now he was coming home and a gun battle between the families is now feared by the town. His brother Randy wishes to avoid this by any means and to end Anse's years of terror in the area.

Some of the Anse's family including his daughter and son do not not like the killing his gunmen use to control the region and slowly come to realize that the Sloan's and their friends aren't responsible for all the crime and murders and may be their father has had a role to play in the mayhem.

There is lots of action and Randy has to choose between two women one of whom is Anse's daughter.… (more)

Bob Webb spent nine years in prison for a killing he did not commit having had a couple of enemies lie at trial. One of these men had also killed his father. Now Bob has escaped Yuma Prison in a large breakout and heads home to clear his name as well as get some revenge on the two men most responsible.

He makes a friend in Stan Fraser and without trying wins the love of beauty Sandra Ranger both of whom put themselves in great danger trying to assist him in proving his innocence. Meanwhile mine owner Jug Packard and nasty badman Rhino Uhlmann are doing their best to kill Webb and hide their own crimes.

This is a very lengthy novel despite the low page count with many twists and turns while keeping the fast pace to keep the reader's attention.… (more)