BLOOD TARGET

GUNSLINGER 10

BLOOD TARGET

By Charles C. Garrett

Cover art by Chris Collingwood

Sphere Books, 1981

John Ryker. Gunsmith . . . bounty hunter . . . and killer. No one knew more about the lethal code of killing that was the key to survival in the violent West.

When Ryker heard about the shooting contest down in Simeonville, it looked an easy way to earn big money. The way that he knew best. Which meant that his heavy Buffalo rifle – the most powerful long gun in the West – was going to see a choice piece of action that would stretch his death-dealing gun skills to the farthest limits . . . and beyond.

Gunslinger was one of my favourite series to come from the small group of writers better known today as the Piccadilly Cowboys. This series was written by Angus Wells and Laurence James, with the latter writing Blood Target.

Each of the Gunslinger books has a plot that revolves around a specific gun and in Blood Target the guns in question are long guns used for target shooting, namely Rykers’ Sharps and the European Schuetzen fitted with telescopic sights. This long-range weapon being described in beautiful detail as Ryker discusses its finer points and possible weaknesses. Rykers’ love for guns being the main hook of the series and the authors include a lot of fascinating information about the firearms used in each story. 

Blood Target doesn’t have as much killing action as other entries in the series but the tension of the shooting contest that takes up the majority of the book more than makes up for that. As the competition progresses so Ryker’s suspicion grows as to what the real reason for holding the tournament is. Of course, the story does contain bloody killings, the opening chapter seeing Ryker’s friend Sheriff Frank Nolan facing two young arrogant gunfights called Stotter and Whitehead and this showdown has always been one that has stuck in my mind. Ryker also gets to show his brutal side when someone tries to kill him during the contest.

Some of you may well recognize the names of the two young killers, Stotter and Whitehead, as using the names of people in the business or friends of the authors for characters was something that was done regularly in this series and others that came from this group of writers. Also mentioning the heroes of other western series was common, and in this book there’s name checks for Crow, Jed Herne and Cuchillo Oro. 

Blood Target is an exciting read that builds its plot well. The target shooting sequences make for gripping reading and at no time is it a foregone conclusion that Ryker will emerge victorious. The real reason for holding the contest in the wilds of Apache country isn’t revealed until near the end and it brings the story to a fitting bloody conclusion. Sadly, Blood Target was the last book of the series, and for me, it brought the series to a strong close.

American readers can get a copy here 

British readers can get a copy here 

THE CAREY GUN

 

THE CAREY GUN

By Irving A. Greenfield

Cover art by Mike Cole

Tandem, 1975

Originally published by Dell, 1974

When Thomas Carey was mustered out of the Confederate Army, he stripped off his uniform but he kept his gun. He would need it where he was going, for ten men had sworn to kill him, then men whom he had last seen in a Yankee prison.

He would need it, too, when he returned to claim the Texas spread he had left five long bloody years before, and the wife who loved and hated him. The land-grabbers and rustlers who had moved in while he was gone had had plenty of time to forget what kind of man Carey was. Now they were going to remember, just as fast as it took Carey’s Colt .45 to clear leather . . . 

In this, the third Carey book, we learn that after taking time-out from the war Carey had returned to continue the fight. This story begins near the end of the Civil War, with Carey involved in the attack on Fort Stedman, also known as the battle for Hare’s Hill, on March 25th, 1865. It’s just before the Confederates attack that Carey learns of the ten men who want to kill him, one of whom is taking part in the battle alongside him. I found this part of the book to be the most exciting as after Lee surrenders the Confederacy the pace of the story slowed quite a lot. 

A promise to a dying Union soldier sees Carey agreeing to deliver news of the man’s death to his sister. On the way Carey decides to visit a woman he’d met in the previous book only to find her dead and discover that he is now a father. Carey takes the baby and the child’s grandfather with him as he heads for home. The fact that the grandfather is black and the baby a half-cast will cause even more problems for Carey, not least whether his wife will want to look after a coloured baby. Then there’s the men wanting his spread that they plan to buy or take with the gun.

Quite a few storylines in this book began in the previous two novels. Even though the author gives brief outlines to what has gone before I think it might be advantageous to read those earlier books before this one. 

Irving A. Greenfield’s prose is very readable, and even though his hero Thomas Carey isn’t a particularly likeable protagonist you will want to know what happens to him. The story is quite dark in tone and the violence fairly brutal in its description. 

The story meandered a bit too much to me though. Once Carey had left the army it seemed to take a long time for anything to happen. When it did, it was exciting enough to keep me reading. I also thought a couple of story threads had been forgotten, but they did rear their ugly heads towards the end even though they didn’t conclude. This makes me wonder if Greenfield had planned to write more books in this series which just didn’t happen for whatever reason. A shame really, as this makes The Carey Gun a weak ending to the trilogy. Overall, I enjoyed the three Carey books, it’s just somewhat disappointing that too many plotlines were left hanging.  

American readers can get a copy here

British readers can get a copy here

EXCITING WESTERN - August 1954

EXCITING WESTERN

British Edition, Vol. III, No. 7

Atlas Publishing, August 1954

This issue of Exciting Western contains five stories, all taken from the American edition of July 1948. Of the eight tales that are in the America version, only five made it into the British edition. None of the American columns, articles or the quiz appear either, and the only illustration to make it is for the lead story in the British publication, Outside the Law, which was drawn by C.A. Murphy. The cover art is the same, although it is presented in a different way – I’ve included this at the end of the review.

The opening novelette is Outside the Law by Jackson Cole. This is one of the fifty Navajo Tom Raine: Arizona Ranger tales that appeared in Exciting Western. The real author behind the pseudonym of Jackson Cole is unknown to me.

Raine is in town to take a vacation, a few days of fishing is what he’s looking forward to. Unsurprisingly, this isn’t how things work out as a number of people believe he’s come to town to track down the missing Gordon Meade. Does the town boss, Stephen Waldron have something to do with his disappearance? He certainly wants to stop the growing romance between his daughter and Meade. Waldron has also posted a reward for Meade’s capture as he says Meade is a rustler. Raine reluctantly finds himself sorting this mess out, having to use his brains and guns to do so and a neat trick with the reward money brings the tale to a close on a happy note. This ending was a little too perfect for my taste, particularly as one person seemed to have a sudden change of temperament to allow this to happen.

This was the first time I’ve read a Navajo Raine story and I liked his character enough to want to read more, something I hope to do soon.

Trigger Trouble in Tejon by W.C. Tuttle is the next novelette and this features his range detectives Tombstone and Speedy who are trying to patch up a range feud and solve a rustling puzzle. Tombstone and Speedy don’t seem to be the brightest pair of sleuths to ride the range, but their conversations were always fun, as was their explanation for being in the area; to count horned toads for the government. There’s a couple of well-written action scenes, and I especially enjoyed the outcome of a fight in a hotel room. It’ll come as no surprise that they crack the case, more by luck than judgement. This was an entertaining story that left me looking forward to reading more tales about Tombstone and Speedy, or other stories by Tuttle. 

The first short story is Hymns for Hell’s Basin by Robert J. Hogan. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by Hogan so far and this tale is no exception. Under the spell of a girl’s smile, cussin’ cowpoke Johnny Rand helps a passel of nesters find new homes. Pastor Freeman and his flock have a grant from the Government giving them permission to stake a claim to an area of land for their new homes. Trouble is the local townsfolk and cattlemen want that land for their own use and begin staking their own claims to the land, which is all legal according to a lawyer. Rand has to think fast to stop all the promised land being taken. All this because one of the female members of the wagon train showed some interest in him, something no girl has done before. The story didn’t end quite how I expected but it was a fitting conclusion to this tale.

Louis Dearborn LaMoore is much better known as Louis L’Amour and he also wrote stories under the name of Jim Mayo. The final two short stories in this issue of Exciting Western both come from him, one as L’Amour and the other as Mayo. 

There’s Always a Trail by Jim Mayo is about a drifter who had a gun job to do before he could settle down and grow roots. This drifter tells people his name is Handy, but it’s obvious that this is a pseudonym to hide his real identity and that his true name will be discovered at some point. Handy says he’ll track down some outlaws and retrieve the money they stole in exchange for half-ownership of a ranch, even though he’s told the robbers haven’t left a trail to follow. Handy soon proves them wrong and tracks the outlaws and everything ends with an exciting gunfight. 

The last story is The Nester and the Piute by Louis L’Amour. For such a short story (it’s only five pages long), L’Amour packs a lot in making this yarn a gripping read. This tale is told in the first person through a young man who decides to follow Bin Morley as he tracks a Piute whose done him a wrong. Quite what that crime is, isn’t revealed until the very end and that left with a big grin on my face. 

All the stories in this issue of Exciting Western are well written and easily held my attention. L’Amour’s tales contained the most gunplay but all had intriguing plotlines that engaged my imagination and kept me reading in a need to know how they ended. Overall, I found this to be a very good collection of stories that kept me entertained throughout. 

FRONTIER AMERICA

 

PREACHER & MACCALLISTER 1:
FRONTIER AMERICA
By William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone
Pinnacle Books, August 2019

As the father of a young Crow tribesman, Preacher would like nothing more than to see the long-time natives and newly arrived settlers live together in peace. Then the killing starts . . . 

As a family man and frontiersman, Jamie Ian MacCallister is more than happy to help the officers at Fort Kearny negotiate a peace treaty with the Crow nation. Until it all goes to hell . . . 

This is not the American dream they were looking for. This is a nightmare. A brutal, blood-drenched frontier war that two heroic men must fight and win – or one struggling nation will never come together. For liberty and justice for all . . . 

Book one in a series that features both Preacher and Jamie Ian MacCallister, that is billed as them being together for the first time, yet as the story progresses, we are told that they already know each other and there is mention of how they met. Is there a book that tells this story? Perhaps there is in one of their own series, but I wouldn’t know as I’ve not read any of the Preacher books, or the Eagles series which starred MacCallister. I believe some of the Preacher books tell of how he met his son’s mother, rescued the woman who would become his son’s wife, and of where a revenge hungry enemy that has sworn to kill Preacher came from. This foe turning up in this book to create all kinds of deadly problems that Preacher will have to deal with whilst struggling to keep the peace between the Crow and the US Army.

From my previous paragraph you might think Preacher has the larger role to play in this book, but it’s actually MacCallister that takes centre stage. The two main characters don’t meet until just over halfway into the story. 

The author regularly switches between his characters, and it soon becomes apparent that both Preacher and MacCallister will eventually come together on opposing sides. On the Crow side we have the coolheaded leader who doesn’t want war, but will fight if he has to. There are also younger braves who’d like nothing better than to take on the soldiers. The American troopers are led by a glory hunting Lieutenant who sees the Crow as inferior and expects them to do as he wants. It’s his arrogance that will be the cause of violence between the two sides when he discovers that there is a white woman living among the Crow and he decides she needs rescuing. The woman in question is Preacher’s son’s wife, Butterfly. 

There are plenty of exciting, tense scenes and exhilarating, brutal fights throughout the fast-moving story. Two of the most memorable clashes being between the hate filled Sergeant O’Conner and the giant Crow warrior Big Thunder. Even when everything seems to have been resolved there is one more savage battle waiting as renegades lead by Preacher’s long-time enemy attack the unsuspecting Crow. 

I found Frontier America to be a very enjoyable tale that left me eager to read the next book in the series and check out both Preacher and MacCallister’s own series.  

American readers can get a copy here
British readers can get a copy here

POSSE FROM HELL

 

POSSE FROM HELL
By Huffaker
Cover art by Gino D’Achille
Futura Publications, 1975
Originally published by Fawcett, 1958

They murdered the marshal and turned the peaceful town of Paradise into a blazing chaos. Then they rode out, taking with them a young girl. Four murderers from Grandville Gaol.

When Banner Cole, deputy marshal, returned to town, people were only too ready to blame the killings on his absence. He only found six men willing to ride out in a posse after the murderers, and by then they were too late. By the time Cole’s posse caught up with the outlaws, two of them had already turned back, vowing to kill every man, woman and child in the town of Paradise, and then wait for Banner Cole.

This book starts off well with some tough, brutal scenes depicting the outlaw’s bloody crimes in the town of Paradise. The pace slows a little after that while Cole attempts to put together a posse. Each of the posse men is well drawn, each having their own memorable traits. Out on the trail, Cole finds himself at odds with one of them in particular and how this is resolved came as a surprise. It isn’t long before Cole only has two men riding beside him, one of whom is not used to riding horses, never mind fighting it out with outlaws. The pace picks up again once these three catch up with their quarry and there’s some excellent gunplay before the trail leads back to Paradise. 

Once the outlaw problem is resolved, the story continues and Cole is criticized for his handling of everything, rather than being accepted as the hero who brought down the killers and deputy marshal contemplates handing in his badge and leaving town for good ending the book on a sour note which is one of the books strengths. 

Huffaker wrote a screenplay from this story which was made into the 1961 movie Posse from Hell starring Audie Murphy and John Saxon.

Posse from Hell proved to be a gripping read that left me looking forward to reading another Huffaker book soon. 

A. LESLIE SCOTT BIBLIOGRAPHY

The 2nd part of Anders Nilsson's Leslie Scott bibliography is now available from archive.org including books published before 1980.

https://archive.org/details/lesliescott_booksbefore1980_nilsson_2024

Alexander Leslie Scott (1893-1974) was a very productive American western writer best known for his stories about the Texas Ranger known as Jim Hatfield or Walt Slade. 

The present bibliography lists his books published before 1980, including 223 titles used for 185 different novels. For each novel all known reprints, including translations, are listed. The highest number of translations were documented from the Scandinavian countries, including 145 novels in Swedish translation. 

Cover scans are displayed of editions from Australia and a selection of European countries.

HAUNTED VALLEY

HAUNTED VALLEY

By Jackson Cole

A Chosen Western, 1949

Most, if not all of the books published by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., Ltd., under their Western, or Chosen Western, line are reprints that most likely appeared in the American pulps first, perhaps in shorter versions and quite often under a different title. Haunted Valley is one of those books.

Haunted Valley was originally published under the title Riders of Embrujada Valley in the October 1943 issue of Texas Rangers and it stars long-running hero Jim Hatfield. Jackson Cole is a pseudonym shared by a number of authors and this story was written by A. Leslie Scott.

Hatfield, also-known-as The Lone Wolf, rides into the Embrujada Valley to find out just what is the source behind the troubles there and put a stop to it. The reader is one step ahead of the Ranger, as the author has already told of the theft and hiding of some black opals that are supposedly worth a fortune but are also tainted with bad luck. The author does keep some secrets from both the reader and the Ranger until he’s ready to reveal them, usually through Hatfield working out just what is going on. Hatfield seems to have knowledge of everything under the sun. This is helpful when he sets to solve a cryptic map that should reveal the location of the hidden opals. Hatfield has a habit of talking to himself and his horse, Goldie, whilst pondering the problems he has to overcome. 

The author moves his story forward swiftly, so there is never a dull moment. There is plenty of gunplay as Hatfield takes on a small group of killers, but who are they working for? There are also two rival ranchers who seem set on a range war, can Hatfield stop the bloodshed before it starts? Hatfield will find himself in all kinds of deadly situations, one of which is illustrated on the book cover, before managing to bring peace to the valley.

A. Leslie Scott’s writing pulled me into the story easily, his descriptive passages are excellent, and are a little poetic at times. I did smile at some of the terms used as they were definitely a product of their times, for instance where bad language should be it says “blankety blank blank” instead. Many of the characters, including Hatfield, talk old style cowboy lingo that I occasionally had to re-read to make sure I’d understood what was being said properly.  

Overall, Haunted Valley is an entertaining read that left me looking forwards to reading the many Hatfield stories I have in pulp magazines and a handful of books.