WESTERNS READ DURING 2025

It's that time again. Another year has passed so here's my list of the westerns I read during 2025. These range from short stories/novels found in the old pulp magazines right upto books published this year. Authors include Spur Award winners, old-hands, and first time writers. To read a review, just click on the entry number.  

1. Gunsmoke 1: Gunsmoke by Gary McCarthy
2. Hell Bound for Spindriff by Dale Graham
3. Hawke 1: Ride with the Devil by Robert Vaughan
4. Hodge by Matt Chisholm
5. Western Novels and Short Stories Vo. 1, No. 5
6. Bloody Joe Mannion 5: All My Sins Remembered by Peter Brandvold
7. Slocum Buried Alive (424) by Jake Logan
8. Badge for Braddock by Kirk Hamilton
9. Six Graves to Sunrise by Brett McKinley
10. Gallows Ghost by Barry Cord
11. Exciting Western – October 1953
12. Abilene 11: The Hellion by Justin Ladd
13. Bannister 2: The Savage Hills by D.B. Newton
14. Bad Night at the Crazy Bull by John Dyson
15. The Badge 16: Cannon’s Grave by Bill Reno
16. Preacher’s Law 3: The Gavel & The Gun by Dean L. McElwain
17. A Notch with No Name by Walt Beaumont
18. Famous Stories of the Wild West by Leonard Gribble
19. .44 by H.A. DeRosso
20. Slash and Pecos 2: A Good Day for a Massacre by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone
21. Unwanted: Dead or Alive by Gene Shelton
22. Head Hunter 1: Arizona Hellcat by E.J. Hunter
23. Raider 13: The Madman’s Blade by J.D. Hardin
24. Hodge 2: Hang a Man High by Matt Chisholm
25. Western Story – March 1949
26. Bull’s Eye Stage Coach by Billy Hall
27. Longarm and Senorita Revenge (415) by Tabor Evans
28. Fort Misery 2: These Men Chose Hell by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone
29. Hannigan 5: Hell Pass by Lance Howard
30. The Jury on Smoky Hill by Jack Curtis
31. Outlaw Destiny by Clifton Adams
32. Vengeance Trail by Bill Brooks
33. Follow the Lonesome Trail: A Western Anthology complied by Allison Tebo
34. Klaw by W.L. Fieldhouse
35. Thrilling Western – Summer 1950
36. Luke Jensen, Bounty Hunter 2: Dead Shot by William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone
37. Sheriff of Big Hat by Barry Cord
38. Hodge 3: The Law of Ben Hodge by Matt Chisholm
39. The Killers from Yellow Rock by Jeff Pintabona
40. Rails into Hell by Robert Vaughan and Brent Towns
41. The Badge 17: The Vulture by Bill Reno
42. The Lonesome Death of Joe Savage by C.J. Sommers
43. Western Adventure – February 1957
44. Tragg’s Choice by Clifton Adams
45. Bloody Joe Mannion 6: Kicked Out with a Cold Shovel by Peter Brandvold

TRAGG'S CHOICE

 

TRAGG’S CHOICE
By Clifton Adams
Tandem, 1975
First published in 1969
Spur Award Winner for Best Western Novel, 1969

For ten years, Owen Tragg lived on his reputation as a hero – exploited by a slick showman who dressed him up in fringed and beaded buckskin and billed him as ‘the man who killed Jody Barker’.

When the act finally folded, Tragg was relieved. But before he could head for El Paso to apply for a deputy’s job, he had some unpleasant business to take care of at Boser’s Creek. There, Jody Barker’s widow waited for him; and there, by a twist of fate that had sent a half-starved sodbuster on a killing spree, Tragg the man was forced to separate himself from Tragg the legend.

He was all that stood between two people and death.

There are four lead characters in this suspense filled book. They all meet on a stagecoach journey. The author fleshes them out superbly, filling in their backgrounds and their dreams for the future. Guilt and greed drive most of them. Each takes centre stage at different points in the book. The titular character is kept mostly in the background for the first half of the story.

I found it fascinating to watch how Morrasey, a down on his luck sodbuster, desperate for something more in his life, becomes a merciless killer. The story begins with him watching a man die, which is right up there with the best opening scenes to a book I’ve ever read. Gripping indeed.

Jessie Ross is the girl who is intent on turning in her dying outlaw boyfriend for the bounty on him. Then there’s Callahan, a bounty hunter who is eager to get part of that reward, and soon has the opportunity to add to that money when he’s hired to kill one of the other three.

Tragg really doesn’t want to get involved with any of them, but fate has other plans and he finds himself wearing a deputy’s star and is sent out to bring in Morrasey. This supposedly simple task is complicated by the involvement of a revenge hungry lynch mob.

Clifton Adams brings all his characters together for a nail-biting final confrontation from which I began to think none of them would survive. The book has a noir feel at times which adds a hard edge to the storyline. 

This is a book that should satisfy all readers of westerns as Clifton Adams proves once again why his work is held in such high regard. The fact that it won a Spur Award should be enough to recommend it to those who’ve yet to read it without my encouragement. Tragg’s Choice really is a terrific western read. 

Note of interest. Tragg’s Choice was first published in Great Britain in 1970 under the title of Dude Sheriff by Robert Hale & Company. 

Street & Smith's WESTERN ADVENTURE - Feb. 1957

 

Street & Smith’s WESTERN ADVENTURE
British Edition, February 1957, Vol. 1, No. 8
Cover art by H.W. Scott

As far as I can tell, most, if not all, the stories published in the 43 issues of the British pulp Street & Smith’s Western Adventure were originally published in the American pulp Street & Smith’s Western Story, of which there were over 2,000 editions. 

The cover art was altered a bit for the British pulp but this is restricted to the text so a new title could be incorporated. I’ve included an image of the original at the end of this review, with a list of the story titles and notes on where they were first published – as you’ll see they don’t all come from a single issue of Western Story.

All of the yarns in the February 1957 edition are short stories, all seven or eight pages in length. Also mixed in are five columns; Where to Go and How to Get There by John North, Mines and Mining by J.A. Thompson, Range Savvy by H. Fredric Young, Guns and Gunners by Phil Sharpe, The Roundup – author unknown. 

The opening story is Doomed Cargo by Norman A. Fox. This is a tale about a young riverboat deck sweeper who learns how to stand-up for himself when he finds the courage and initiative, he didn’t know he had, to thwart an attempt to steal the riverboat’s cargo and kill everyone onboard. I’ve only read a couple of other stories by Fox, and this is the most enjoyable so far, perhaps because I like riverboat tales.  

Hot-Lead Headliners by John Colohan is next. I’ve not read anything by him before so was interested to sample his work. The story involved committing murder to cover up a previous killing. A drunk newspaper man overhears the bad guys plotting this new assassination attempt and knows he must do something to stop it happening. How he does this adds intrigue to the tale. Colohan also has a neat surprise waiting to be revealed at the end. Colohan’s tale proved to be a fun read. 

Track Treachery by E.C. Lincoln is set in modern times and is about horse racing. Why would a leading horse suddenly turn and head to the side of the track and thus lose the race? I was intrigued enough to want to know the answer to that question so I struggled through the story to find out. The writing style didn’t click with me and I very nearly gave up with it. I probably would have done so had it been any longer. 

After the disappointing pervious story, I was hoping that Murder Gun by B. Bristow Green would be better and I got my wish. This is a bank robbery tale where an innocent stranger to town gets accused of being one of the hold-up men. His capture leads to a make-shift court being set up that provides some tense scenes and a neat twist. I’ve never read anything by B. Bristow Green before and this story left me eager to explore more of his work.  

Easy Does It by C.K. Shaw is the first of three stories she wrote that featured Windy Bill Wicks. I’ve seen a note saying that this tale was originally published as East Does It, but I think the U.K. title is correct as Wicks is told to take things easy more than once. In fact, the opening words are “Easy Windy.” The story is written in the first person and involves two sets of ranch hands at loggerheads with each other over a couple of slashed saddles and a knife that is found beside them. Of course, the knife owner says it wasn’t him and the knife was stolen. Proving this is what the story is about. This was another difficult to read tale due to its old-fashioned style. It was an ok story but didn’t make me want to read the other Windy Bill tales or any more of Chloe Kathleen Shaw work.

The next story was much better than the previous one. White Water Run by Hugh B. Cave is about a Mountie tracking down a murderer. It contains some gripping scenes of canoe travel through treacherous waters, surprises and a neat twist to the end. This was by far my favourite story in this issue of Western Adventure. 

The final tale is Dead Man’s Horse by J. Lane Linklater in which a man has to make a choice of whether to hinder or help the law. Whichever way he chooses will mean a change to the way of life he has known which sees his word ruling the lives of those that live in and near Quiet Gulch. People can be safe there, whether good or bad as long as there aren’t any killings. Then a body is found… Linklater’s story is fast-paced and gripping and even though events play out as I expected I still found it to be a fun read.

For me, this issue of Western Adventure proved to be a patchy read in terms of quality of storytelling but the good far outweighed the bad. I’d only read stories by one of the authors before (Norman A. Fox) and have now added a couple more authors to my want to read more of list. 

Doomed Cargo by Norman A. Fox – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, January 1941

Hot-Lead Headlines by John Colohan – original publication unknown

Track Treachery by E.C. Lincoln – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, January 1941

Murder Gun by B. Bristow Green – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, December 1942

Easy Does It by C.K. Shaw – Street & Smith’s Western Story, December 1942 

White Water Run by Hugh B. Cave – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, February 1942

Dead Man’s Horse by J. Lane Linklater – originally published in Street & Smith’s Western Story, February 1942

THE LONESOME DEATH OF JOE SAVAGE

 

THE LONESOME DEATH OF JOE SAVAGE
By C.J. Sommers
Cover Art by Prieto Muriana
Robert Hale, November 2012

A sense of family duty led Tracy Keyes to search for his cousin, the notorious Wyoming bad man, Joe Savage. His mother wished to know if he was dead or alive – and so did half the lawmen and bounty hunters in the North County.

Tracy hadn’t seen Savage since they were boys and wasn’t sure he’d even recognize his criminal cousin if they met face to face. Carrying the onus of being related to the infamous Savage made things no easier for him, nor did the bounty hunters who dogged his trail, believing that Tracy could lead them to the outlaw. By the end of the long journey, Tracy was convinced that he was only following Joe Savage into his own grave….

C.J. Sommers doesn’t believe in giving his hero an easy time of it. Tracy will be on the wrong end of fists and have plenty of lead slung at him. He soon realizes he can’t trust anyone, and nearly everyone he meets tells him Savage is dead, and good riddance. If he is dead, then where is his grave? This question, and plenty of others such as who owns the land that Savage had bought now that he is dead add some strong mystery elements to this fast-moving tale. It's difficult to say anything else about the plot without including spoilers. 

There’s not as much action in this book as others I have read by this author, but it really doesn’t need it as it’s Tracy’s attempts to unravel the mysteries he’s presented with that easily kept my attention, so much so that I hadn’t realized there hadn’t been as much gunplay as I might have expected until I thought about it. 

I’ve read quite a few Black Horse Westerns written by C.J. Sommers and have found them all to be gripping reads and The Lonesome Death of Joe Savage also falls into that category. C.J. Sommers is just one of three pseudonyms Paul Lederer used for his BHWs; the other two pen-names being Logan Winters and Owen G. Irons and I’ve read many of his stories under those names too and I have yet to be disappointed by any of his books. Lederer didn’t just write westerns for Robert Hale Ltd., he also wrote for some of the American publishers too under a variety of names.

American readers can get a copy here.

UK readers can get a copy here.

THE VULTURE

 

THE BADGE
Book 17 of 24
THE VULTURE
By Bill Reno
Cover art by Shannon Stirnweis
Bantam Books, June 1990

To a violent land, a frontier yet untamed, came a man who wore a badge of law and order. He faced the myriad dangers and paid the price in blood to become one of the most enduring heroic figures of the Old West.

Victorio “the Vulture” Condor is the vicious bandito who has stained the Pecos red with blood. Yet no one has felt the full force of his brutality…until now. As vultures circle hungrily over the bodies of his dead brothers, Victorio declares war on the Texas Rangers – and on Lieutenant Mark Gray, the man who strung them up. One by one, the Rangers will fall before his guns: but not the shrewd Lieutenant. For Gray is a hard man to kill, and as hunter turns to hunted, Victorio will find he’s an even harder man to escape.

The Badge books are about different lawmen, although a few do appear in more than one entry in the series. All the books can be read as stand-alone novels so there is no need to read them in order. 

Even though Lieutenant Mark Gray is the hero of this story the author spends as much time, if not more, telling the reader what Victorio is doing, painting a savage picture of this man and his gang. It seems that Gray and the Texas Rangers are no match for this bandit as the body count grows.

I would hazard a guess that the author, Lew A. Lacy writing as Bill Reno, had some fun coming up with all the different ways Victorio deals out death. The Vulture doesn’t want his targets to die quickly, he wants them to suffer for killing his brothers. Victorio takes great pleasure in sending the Ranger Captain Terrell Sears the badges of his dead men along with a black vulture feather. It’s not just Rangers who are marked to die, there’s a judge and a couple of lawmen too. 

The book doesn’t have a complicated plot, it is a straight-forward tale of revenge that is fairly brutal at times. From reading other books in this series, I couldn’t begin to guess how it would end as the author will kill off the main characters to add lasting impact to his tales. Would that happen in this one? It certainly seemed to be heading down that trail. 

I did feel the final confrontation was drawn out a bit too long, but the final scenes will definitely stay in my mind for a long time and provided a fitting end to this excellent story. For me, The Vulture is one of the best entries I’ve read in this series and I’m looking forward to reading book 18 soon.

RAILS INTO HELL

 

RAILS INTO HELL
A Faraday Novel: 6 
By Brent Towns 
Wolfpack Publishing, October 2025

The railroad’s arrival promised progress, but in Sagebrush Creek, it came riding on a tide of blood.

A surveyor lies dead, murdered to halt the iron rails’ advance. Matthew Faraday knows one man who can uncover the truth—former gunfighter Jack Quade. But Faraday’s reasons aren’t entirely about justice. Trouble’s brewing in the hills: a range war with Quade’s estranged father, Vince, at its heart.

Years ago, Vince Quade disavowed his son. Now Jack must face a father who wants nothing from him—least of all help. But with a killer on his trail and tensions ready to explode into open war, Jack has no choice but to fight on two fronts: mending a broken bond and stopping a murderer before Sagebrush Creek becomes a graveyard.

Will Jack Quade bring peace to a town on the brink—or will the railroad carry him straight into hell? 

I read the original six book Faraday series when they were first published at the end of the 1980’s. Wolfpack republished four of them, renumbered and in a slightly different order. Two brand new books have also been published carrying on with the number sequence from Wolfpack. All the Wolfpack books carry the authors real name on the cover whereas the original run saw them published under the pseudonym of William Grant. 

I’ve also read a number of westerns by Brent Towns, and like the original Faraday series, enjoyed them greatly.

Matthew Faraday is the head of the Faraday Security Service, a railroad detective agency. So far, each book features a different undercover agent and Faraday himself takes a background role. Brent Towns follows this premise perfectly and has created an engaging hero with a complicated past that will create additional problems for him to overcome. Some of the troubles he will face he knows about; others will take him by surprise. 

Each chapter is broken into a number of short scenes that follow different characters so I was left hanging on what each of them would do next and how it would affect others actions. The inclusion of some excellent twists and turns ensured I’d keep reading. The possibility of a range war merging with the mystery of who murdered the railroad surveyor was also a question I had. Were these two elements of the story connected in any way? 

The writing style is fluid, fast paced and gritty. If you like a lot of gunplay in your westerns then Towns’ will certainly keep you satisfied. Towns also springs some unexpected surprises on the reader too. 

All I can now hope is that Wolfpack Publishing decide to continue with this series and that Brent Towns gets to write another. 

American readers can get a copy here.

UK readers can get a copy here.

THE KILLERS FROM YELLOW ROCK

 

THE KILLERS FROM YELLOW ROCK
By Jeff Pintabona
Veritas Entertainment, September 2025

$25,000 in blood money. One mountain. No second chances.

Blood money has a way of calling every gunman for miles.

High atop Yellow Rock Mountain, notorious gunfighter Mort Totten sits like a vulture king, with a $25,000 bounty on his head. Nineteen men have tried their luck. Nineteen men never came back alive.

But the lure of fortune is stronger than fear. When young trail hand Jerry Dixon and his Apache partner Coyotero set their sights on Totten, they’re drawn into a deadly game of ambushes, betrayals, and gunsmoke. Soon, Dixon finds himself riding alongside the very outlaw he meant to kill—facing merciless bounty hunters, corrupt lawmen, desert ambushes, and savage killers who want the reward for themselves.

From dusty Nevada canyons to lawless frontier towns, The Killers from Yellow Rock explodes with blazing six-gun duels, knife fights, ambushes under desert stars, and the kind of larger-than-life characters that define the Western myth.

Although this is the second western from Jeff Pintabona it is the first I’ve read by him and what an entertaining read it turned out to be. 

The opening attempts on Totten’s life captured my imagination easily and once I found out that Dixon wasn’t really after the bounty but wanted Totten to help him take revenge on a man Totten used to partner the story really grabbed me and ensured I’d keep turning the pages.

Totten is an out-and-out killer. A man who will kill the opposition anyway he can with the least danger to himself. This put him at odds with Dixon who refuses to kill a man in cold blood. As they travel towards their target, Totten attempts to change Dixon’s mind whilst teaching him how to be quick with gun, knife and fist. There is plenty of trouble to face whilst on their journey which highlights some of the weaknesses Dixon has. 

Characterization is done well and I did notice that the reader never gets to share Totten’s thought process, which helps make him appear somewhat cold-hearted, but he occasionally acts in a way or says something that hints there is more to him than what we see at face-value. 

I don’t really want to reveal anything else about the plot as it would spoil the surprises the reader has coming. I did begin to wonder who of the main characters, if any, would be alive by the end.

The Killers from Yellow Rock is a tough, gritty read that is filled with hard-hitting action. Pacing is excellent as it builds towards its exciting final showdown that left me hoping for a sequel as I need to read more about the survivors. Recommended. 

American readers can get a copy here.

British readers can get a copy here.

THE LAW OF BEN HODGE

 

THE LAW OF BEN HODGE
By Matt Chisholm
Cover art by Walter Popp
Panther, July 1959

The town simmered with hate between the north and the south, between the townsman and the drover, between the law and the lawless.

Hodge tramped the streets of the old town with a star on his vest, knowing the mob would kill him so that they could hang his prisoner…knowing the Texas drovers would kill him to rescue the murderer.

Hodge knew that there could only be one law now…his law – The Law of Ben Hodge.

This is the third and final book Matt Chisholm wrote about Ben Hodge. The previous stories are briefly mentioned but you don’t need to have read them to fully enjoy this tale. In those earlier books, Hodge was trying to save himself from being hanged. In this one Hodge is trying to protect a guilty man from lynch law.

Hodge finds himself reluctantly wearing a star when the towns’ lawman is laid up. A drunken cowboy has accidently shot and killed a child. The townsfolk want his neck stretched immediately. The drovers want to free their friend. Everybody wants Hodge out of the way so they can do what they feel is right. Both sides prepare to fight each other so they can get to the man they want.

Once Hodge accepts the badge, he intends to enforce the law. He soon has his suspicions about the killing. Was it accidental or done on purpose? If the latter, what is the motive? Behind his back, powerful townsmen plot the death of Hodge’s prisoner and professional gunmen prepare to carry out their boss’s orders. 

Chisholm builds the tension well as the story swiftly moves towards its violent conclusion. Along the way there are plenty of bursts of action. Hodge takes some punishment too. As the plot becomes more complicated it is hard to see how any of the main characters will survive. Hodge’s wife Rose has a part to play, although she is unaware of the danger she is in and Hodge doesn’t know either. 

I did feel this story wasn’t as strong as the previous Hodge books. That may be because I’ve read many more tales about a lawman trying to protect his prisoner from a mob than I have where the protagonist literally has a rope around his neck and has moments to somehow free himself from the noose. Having said that, The Law of Ben Hodge was still a very entertaining read and left me looking forward to reading more from this author very soon.

Matt Chisholm is a pseudonym used by Peter Watts, a British writer who has long been one of my favourite western authors. 

SHERIFF OF BIG HAT

 

SHERIFF OF BIG HAT
By Barry Cord
A Wagon Wheel Western, 1958

Three men rode into Del Rio on three different trails. They were known as the Unholy Three – and they deserved their nickname. Doc, Jackson, and the Kid, were their names. They had nothing in common – except a willingness to hire out their guns.

Barry Cord packs a lot into this short western. Questions come at the reader from the first pages. Who are the Unholy Three being the main one to start with. They ride together but know little about each other. It seems they’ve been hired to stop a range war, but it soon become evident there’s a lot more at stake than that. 

It’s not long before the Kid’s past is revealed. Del Rio is the town the Kid grew up in. It’s to town he fled with the accusation of murder hanging over his head. Soon his relationships with various townsfolk cause more problems, especially when the Kid rips the badge off the town’s sheriff and pins it on his own shirt. What of the girl the Kid left behind? She’s the daughter of the old sheriff and the sister of the man the Kid is supposed to have killed.

As the tale races through its many twists and turns it becomes evident there isn’t going to be a happy ending for many of the characters, if any. There’s a dark tone to the proceedings. Men make promises that they’ll kill each other. Bullets fly thick and fast. Some of the bad guys are obvious but the author keeps some a secret, such as who killed Ann’s brother and who murdered the Kid’s father. 

I’ve read quite a few books and short stories by Barry Cord and I can’t remember his descriptions of violence and torture ever being quite so graphic as they are in a couple of scenes in this book. 

Barry Cord is a pseudonym used by Peter Germano and I was once more thoroughly entertained by one of his books. This may not be the best of his work, but it is certainly worth reading. 

Arcadia House, who put out the Wagon Wheel Westerns really let the author down and it really makes me wonder if they employed a proof reader. For instance, a word that should finish a sentence isn’t there, but it does turn up at the end of the previous page all by itself. There are also words with missing letters or they are so badly printed it’s hard to read them. The gaps between words and sentences vary in size too. None of this makes it unreadable though. I do have one or two other Wagon Wheel Westerns and I am now intrigued to see of they are as badly printed as this one. 

DEAD SHOT

 

LUKE JENSEN, BOUNTY HUNTER 2
DEAD SHOT
By William W. Johnstone with J.A. Johnstone
Pinnacle Books, July 2013

Luke Jensen brings a body to Rio Rojo. After all, it’s his job, and he’s going to get paid. But before he can collect the bounty for killing a killer, two notorious criminals hit the Rio Rojo bank. Now Luke can’t get paid unless he catches professional bandit Gunner Kelly and his Apache sidekick Dog Eater. Unfortunately, a would-be man hunter is after the money-toting outlaws too, and young Hobie McCullough is mostly a menace to himself. With a green kid to protect, renegade Mexican soldiers, and a beautiful runaway bride crossing Luke’s trail, the blood hunt takes one deadly detour after another…until Luke ends up smack dab in a nest-of-vipers outlaw hideout. There, he discovers the true identity of Gunner Kelly, what kind of ungodly terror he has planned, and just how dangerous being a bounty hunter can be…

Even though this book reads like a number of different incidents that see Luke Jensen fighting for his life, each of the story threads is held together by the hunt for Gunner Kelly and Dog Eater. The need to sort out each crisis Luke finds himself in quickly so he can continue to track the outlaws, glues everything together well. Each segment has its own strong storyline and is filled with memorable characters, some of which will turn up later to cause even more deadly problems for Luke.

Luke is a determined man. A man who won’t let anything get in the way of his goal. He’d happy ride around the troubles he comes upon so he can just get on with his task of taking down Kelly and the Apache. But Hobie doesn’t let him as he feels it’s his duty to help people in distress and Luke has no choice but to help.

The lengthiest part of this book is the story of the runaway bride. Why is a band of gunmen trying to kill her? Luke is not sure that is what they are trying to do and is soon proved right. This section of the book features as dramatic stagecoach ride before Luke, Hobie, the bride-to-be and other stagecoach passengers find themselves trapped in a dead-end canyon which provides an exciting how are they going to get out of that situation. In fact, the book contains a lot of cliff-hanger endings to chapters and scenes that ensure the reader will keep turning the pages. 

Action sequences come regularly and the fights are fairly brutal at times. Characters are nicely fleshed out making you care about their future or want to see them get their just rewards. Pacing is excellent too. Even though some of the story threads were resolved as I expected, there were also some surprises that caught me off-guard. 

Hopefully it won’t be as long before I read book three, Bloody Sunday, as it was between reading the first book and this one. 

THRILLING WESTERN - SUMMER 1950

 

THRILLING WESTERN

British Edition, Vol. IV, No. 1

Atlas Publishing, Summer 1950

This is a shortened edition of the American November/December 1949 edition of Thrilling Western. The British edition only reprints four of the originals nine stories along with the short quiz. 

The opening novelette is The Coffin Riders by Bradford Scott. This is a Walt Slade tale that sees him take on a lawless killer band that holds the Sin Cajo country in a grip of fear. Bradford Scott is a pseudonym for A. Leslie Scott, a prolific writer for the pulp magazines who also wrote many of the Jim Hatfield stories as Jackson Cole. The Coffin Riders didn’t really offer anything new, just followed a typical storyline for a Slade or Hatfield tale. Slade rides into the area, keeps his identity a secret for a while, has a fist fight (which is beautifully depicted by Orban in a full-page illustration), talks to his horse and himself a lot, uses his guns, before explaining who the bad guys are, what they’d been doing and why along with the mistakes they’d made that enabled him to bring them down, then rides off strumming his guitar and singing. This was an ok predictable read that felt like it was just going through the motions which is why I’m moved say this isn’t one of the best stories I’ve read from Scott. 

A Man Like General Custer by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson is next. This is another novelette by a new author to me. This story felt like one long battle between the U.S. Army and the Apache which tests the characters of Lieutenants Beck and Carney in a fiery crucible of war and danger. Yes, we’ve met similar characters in countless stories before – the ambitious man who doesn’t think things through so endangers his men often as he hunts for glory and the more level headed Beck who covers for Carney’s mistakes when he can. Of course, there’s the Major who is at his last straw with Carney. Things aren’t helped by the Major’s daughter being sweet on Carney. There’s plenty of action and a seemingly endless supply of Apaches to be killed. The ending left a smile on my face. Wheeler-Nicholson’s prose kept this tale fresh and exciting and for me it is the best story within this issue and it certainly left me looking forward to reading more of his work sometime assuming I can find more as he only wrote just over twenty western pulp tales and I don’t have any more. 

Barry Scobee’s One Barrel of Water is the third yarn. This short story tells the tale of hard-bitten men who clash over that precious fluid in the desert heat. It’s not just a story of the fight for water as there is a little more to it than that. Namely some lost treasure. I wasn’t sure about this one as I began to read as it didn’t really hold my attention but I’m glad I persevered as it picked up and became an entertaining tale that had some well written action scenes. This was the first story I’ve read by Scobee and I’ll certainly give him another go. 

The last story is a third novelette. The Son of Shiftless Joe by Bruce Douglas. He’s another author that I haven’t read before and this story is the only one I have by him. Bruce Douglas is a pseudonym for Theodore Wayland Douglas and he wrote just over eighty western pulp stories. This one tells the tale of young Tad Jamieson as he sticks his neck out for trouble when he decides to raise sheep in cattle territory. To complicate matters, Tad is sweet on the daughter of his cattleman neighbour, so that is a romance that is seemingly doomed. Even though it is the kind of story the seasoned western reader will have come across many times Douglas’ writing kept me interested. Threats are made, sheep escape onto public land and a range war is on the horizon. The tough talk is lightened occasionally by comments from Tad’s two hands, Buck Bailey and Half-Pint King. Overall, this was a fun read even though it played out exactly as I expected it to.

If you haven’t guessed already, my favourite story within this issue of Thrilling Western was A Man Like General Custer. One-Barrel of Water and The Son of Shiftless Joe kept my attention and I enjoyed reading them. It’s just a shame The Coffin Riders was a bit of a let-down. 

KLAW

KLAW
By W.L. Fieldhouse
Tower Books, 1980

When John Klawson returned from the War to Great Ford, he found his parents dead, victims of a phony “Indian raid,” and their property confiscated by banker Warren T. Jennings. And the rest of the town was under the control of Jennings and his hired guns. Klawson vowed revenge, but Jennings struck first, sending his hardcases after the ex-soldier. In a violent battle Klawson lost his right hand and was left for dead. But he survived and was hidden by friends until his arm healed. A blacksmith fitted him with a gleaming steel claw for a hand, and Klaw, as he became known, learned all over how to use a revolver and a rifle. Soon he was ready to exact vengeance on Jennings and his crew. One by one they would die – painfully – if Klaw had his way!

Whilst America tried to inject new life into the western with the introduction of explicit adult content, the British produced books that were filled with graphic violence and brought the anti-hero more into the limelight. Some of these series such as Edge and Apache became massive successes in America too, so much so that American publishers jumped on the bandwagon and launched their own series with similar content such as Kilburn, Cutter, Hawk (not to be confused with the British series with the same name), and The Loner. I believe the three Klaw books was another of these, as was the equally violent Six-Gun Samurai series that Fieldhouse wrote alongside two other authors as Patrick Lee. 

This book has a slow start as the author fills the reader in on the Klawson’s backstory – events that lead to him facing Jennings in Great Ford. The momentum picks up after Klawson loses his hand and the blacksmith creates the claw for him. This claw is detachable and Klawson can fit other attachments in place of it, such as a modified handgun. This is where the pace of the story begins to move forward at a gallop. Revenge is all that Klawson lives for. As the death toll mounts Klawson becomes know as Klaw. Yet, unlike those anti-heroes of the British westerns, Klaw keeps some of his compassion which, at times, makes him seem like a bit of a contradiction. One minute dishing out death in a completely cold-blooded way, then showing his tender side, such as when he meets Elena and when he helps those back in Great Ford. This makes him a somewhat complex character, a man who clings onto some of his humanity. 

The action scenes are well described in all their graphic brutality. There are some excellent set pieces such as the ambush in a fort that sees both Gatling guns and cannon used effectively. The author often switches between the various groups of characters so he can include more vicious violence as we follow the men Klaw is hunting for. As you’d expect, everything comes together for a savage conclusion.

Throughout the story there is mention of an organization, one that Jennings worked for. Who they are, and what their ultimate aims are is kept vague. On finishing Klaw I was left to wonder if they will be part of the plot of the second Klaw book. I guess I’ll have to read it to find out which is something I aim to do very soon.

I started this review with my thoughts on how some American western series seemed to have been created to cash in on the success of some of the British series. I’ve always wondered if one of the British authors read the Klaw books and used them as an inspiration for his series Claw? He even seems to give a nod of acknowledgement by naming the leader of the outlaws, who are responsible for the loss of the hero’s hand, Jennings. If he didn’t, that’s one hell of a coincidence. 

FOLLOW THE LONESOME TRAIL

FOLLOW THE LONESOME TRAIL

A Wild West Anthology complied by Allison Tebo

Published by KDP, August 2025

A trapper discovers he’s been left a poke of gold—but there’s a safe and a greedy bartender between him and his inheritance. The residents of a mining camp join forces to protect children who may or may not be royalty in disguise. And a pair of bandits get more trouble than they bargained for when the cargo they were hired to steal turns out to be somebody’s mail-order bride!

Find all this and more in this anthology, and prepare yourself for a wild West you only thought you knew as six authors go off-trail and blaze a new path.

Contents:

1. Safekeeping by Rachel Kovaciny

2. Two for the Trail by Allison Tebo

3. A Peculiar Kidnapping by A. Hartley

4. Gold is Where You Find It by Allison Tebo

5. The Princess of Flat Rock by Elisabeth Grace Foley

6. The Man with the Long-Barrelled Gun by Emily Hayse

7. Blaze of Memories by Allison Tebo

8. The Trouble with Rubies by Hannah Kaye

This just released collection of short stories offers a refreshing take on the western. All of them have strong roles for female leads. There are plenty of twists, many of which I didn’t see coming. There’s a bittersweet ending but most finish with an uplifting conclusion. There’s a lot of humour with a couple of the stories bordering on being outright comedy tales. Most of the stories have a light-hearted tone although you will find some thoughtful messages within the stories too. There are crazy situations that need fast thinking to resolve. The misunderstanding of an overheard conversation drives the plot of one of the stories. Another seems to follow a more traditional western storyline; that of a new widowed young mother about to lose her ranch until a lone man steps in to deal out justice because that is the right thing to do.

All of these stories captured my imagination and kept me turning the pages to see what happened next. I wished some of them were longer. A couple left me wondering if the lead characters would return in future tales. 

Yes, I have my favourites but I can honestly say I’d be happy to read more western stories by any of the authors in this collection – I’ve only read Elisabeth Grace Foley before. The three tales by Allison Tebo are much shorter than the others.

Overall, this is a strong collection of short stories from a group of talented authors. Recommended.

American readers can get a copy here

British readers can get a copy here

VENGEANCE TRAIL

VENGEANCE TRAIL
By Bill Brooks
Leisure Books, January 2009

Johnny Montana has racked up a lot of enemies in his days as a gambler, road agent and killer. And it seems the law has finally caught up with him. Shooting a U.S. senator was the last straw. But it’s a long way across Indian Territory to get Johnny to “Hanging” Judge Parker. And plenty of others are looking to exact their own vengeance. The Biggs boys have given up their successful hog farm to hunt down the man who shot their father between the eyes. Eli Stagg, a hard, cruel tracker, has been hired by the senator’s family to make sure their own version of justice is done. And the Comanche will kill just about anyone on their land.

With all hell about to break loose across the roughest territory in the state, Texas Ranger Henry Dollar is the only one who can prevent an utter bloodbath – if he can stay alive long enough himself.

Although the blurb seems to indicate that Henry Dollar is the central character in this book he isn’t. Neither is anyone else. The story switches regularly between those mentioned above, and more, as it builds in intensity. This allows the author to flesh out his characters, explaining their reasons for hunting Montana, sharing the emotions that drive them. As death and injury befall them, I soon began to wonder if any of them would be alive at the end.

Brooks’ descriptions of time and place are well written and the action scenes are hard hitting. His characters are memorable, both good and bad. Although the story has a pretty straight-forward plot Brooks tells it in a compelling way that makes the book difficult to put down until the end is reached. 

Having read other books by Brooks that all had a dark tone throughout I was surprised to find this one didn’t. This means it should appeal to a wider readership – those who don’t like too much graphic violence, explicit sex, or depressing themes in their reading. 

I found Vengeance Trail to be an enjoyable read and I’m now wondering where my other yet to read books by Bill Brooks are as I was left wanting to read more of his work soon.

OUTLAW DESTINY

 

OUTLAW DESTINY
a.k.a THE LAST DAYS OF WOLF GARNETT
By Clifton Adams
Tandem, 1975
Spur Award Winner for Best Western Novel, 1970

To most Texans, Wolf Garnett was a notorious outlaw, a man to be feared. To Frank Gault, he was a relentless obsession, a man to be killed. Gault had spent more than a year tracking him down to avenge the brutal, senseless murder of his young wife.

And now Wolf Garnett was dead. At least, everyone said so. But Gault wasn’t satisfied. How could he have seen Garnett in Indian territory four days earlier if he’d been dead for two weeks? Was the rotting corpse buried in New Boston Cemetery really that of Garnett?

Whether for revenge, justice, or satisfaction, Frank Gault was driven to find out how Wolf Garnett died – or get killed for trying.

In Frank Gault, Clifton Adams created a character that had nothing else to live for but tracking down Wolf Garnett. Even when all the evidence points to Garnett being dead, Gault has to continue with his fixation on being satisfied that what everyone tells him is true as he has no purpose for carrying on, for living. Garnett is a driven man, a man who won’t let anyone or anything stop him finding out the truth.

Adams’ tells a gritty tale that is infused with darkness. His characters are tough men who only seem to care about their own needs. There’s a woman too. Beautiful. A woman who just about every man is in love with. Does she know what has really happened to her brother Wolf Garnett? 

As the story progresses, Gault’s queries lead to more questions not answers. More characters are introduced, all reluctant to speak of what they know. People die and Gault is still at a loss and the mystery behind Wolf Garnett deepens.

Adams’ superb storytelling easily pulled me into this book. His harsh, bleak prose gripped me instantly and its hook never let go. There’s a noir tone throughout and the story seems to be heading for an unhappy ending for all his characters. Is Gault riding a trail of self-destruction? 

This book won a Spur Award for best Western Novel and it is easy to see why. It’s powerful characterizations and twisting plot will stay in my memory for a long time and make this a book I’d recommend to any western reader. This was Adams’ second Spur Award as he had already won one the previous year for his novel Tragg’s Choice which I have yet to read. I’ve now moved Tragg’s Choice towards the top of my to read pile. 

This book was originally published in America as The Last Days of Wolf Garnett in 1970. In 1972 it was published in the U.K. by Robert Hale under the title Outlaw Destiny and Tandem ran with that title too. 

THE JURY ON SMOKY HILL

THE JURY ON SMOKY HILL

By Jack Curtis

Cover art by Lino Saffioti

Pocket Books, February 1992

Sheriff Dave Cromwell was chosen to stop the gun-happy, liquor-fuelled Texas cowboys who were tearing up Ellsworth, Kansas. But when the good and proper townspeople reached the end of their patience, they decided to take the law into their own hands.

Dave had four prisoners in his jail when the men with white sacks over their heads came bursting in. A few hours later the four captives were hanging from the railroad trestle just outside of town. Knowing each of the twelve “jurors,” Dave turned in his badge. But the killings would not leave him alone.

One by one, the members of Ellsworth’s hanging party began dying. Dave Cromwell thought the executioners were getting pretty much what they deserved. The trouble was, now no one was safe in Ellsworth. Not until the cycle of vengeance was stopped… 

It's been a long, long time since I last read a book by Jack Curtis, an author who wrote for a variety of television series including Big Valley, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, and Zane Grey Theater. Why it’s taken so long to get around to reading him again I can’t say, especially when I really enjoyed the previous book I read by him, Texas Rules. Curtis put out both stand-alone titles and a five-book series about a man called Sam Benbow.

The Jury on Smoky Hill is a fast-moving story that blends western and murder/mystery seamlessly. There is very little gunplay but there are plenty of killings. Most of the deaths take place off-screen but by doing this the author doesn’t give any clue as to who is murdering the hanging party. Those so-called jurors begin to point the finger of accusation at Cromwell who is trying to get a ranch up and running after handing in his badge. A gunfighter brought in as Ellsworth new lawman seems quite happy to take orders from the men behind the hangings. The main strengths of this tale come from the author’s ability to create a suspenseful storyline, tension in his characters and anticipation within his readers as we await the next death. Who will it be? Will the vengeance seeking killer succeed in taking out all the hanging party?

Even though the author doesn’t name his killer until the final scenes are ready to be played out, most readers shouldn’t have any difficulty working out who it is. This doesn’t ruin anything though, as you’ll still want to discover if this person kills all his targets or gets stopped before doing so.

The end of the book didn’t quite turn out as I expected as the author had a neat little twist waiting, one that finished the story in the best way possible for me. 

Hopefully, it won’t take anywhere near as long before I pick up another Jack Curtis book as it did between this and my previous Curtis book. 

HELL PASS

 

HELL PASS
By Lance Howard
Cover art by Sebastià Boada
Linford Edition, 2008
First published by Robert Hale, April 2007 as A Black Horse Western

The circus comes to the town of Angel Pass, but does it bring simple pleasure for the hard-working cowboys and wide-eyed children of the community – or something more sinister?

Fresh from a mission to discover the fate of his lovely partner’s long-lost brother and faced with a series of bizarre kidnappings and jewel robberies, ex-manhunter Hannigan endeavours to find out. But will the secrets of the past prove more disturbing than the revelations of the present?

This is the fifth book of seven that Lance Howard wrote about Jim Hannigan. You don’t need to have read any of the others to get full-enjoyment out of this one as it reads like a stand-alone novel. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t any mention of Hannigan’s previous adventures. 

Lance Howard fills this book with fascinating characters – how could you not when having the plot revolve around a circus that sees dwarves, snake dancers, strong men, fortune tellers and more play important roles in the story. A circus into which Hannigan’s partner, Angela del Pelado, will go undercover to try and find trace of the stolen children.

The story contains a flash-back to Angela’s life as a small child going fishing with her brother, Alejandro. It is he who goes missing later. After Angela and Hannigan try to find him, Angela gives up on the hope of ever seeing him again. But we, as readers, know what happened to him and one of the gripping storylines this book contains is wanting to know how Angela will react when she finally comes face to face with him.

Another story-thread that hooked me was the mystery of the missing children. Where were they? Why were they being stolen? 

Although Hannigan is billed as the main character it is Angela who seems to have the larger role in this fast-moving tale. Her need to find her brother. Her desire to be more than a partner in righting wrongs with Hannigan, she wants to be his lover. These, and more, are main features of the plot, as is the horror she will surely have to face by the end of the book.

Howard’s writing is smooth-flowing and easy to read. His plot moves forward at an ever-increasing pace. There’s plenty of action that includes gunplay and assassination attempts. There’s emotional turmoil that makes you share his characters feelings. There are different storylines that are on a collision course, and when everything comes together Howard brings it all to a satisfying conclusion. 

Lance Howard is a pseudonym used by Howard Hopkins, an author whose work I’ve always enjoyed. Hell Pass proved to be another very entertaining read which left me wondering why I’ve left it so long since I last read a book by him.

THESE MEN CHOSE HELL

FORT MISERY

THESE MEN CHOSE HELL

By William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone

Pinnacle, July 2025

Welcome to Fort Misery – where the lowliest dregs of the U.S. Army defend the driest patch of lawless desert against the most sadistic killers in the Wild, Wild West. Sometimes it takes a bad man with a gun to stop another bad man with a gun . . . 

They’re not what you’d call “the good guys.” They’re a mangy pack of despicable deserters, thieves, mutineers, and worse. But as condemned soldiers in an overstretched army, they were given a choice: death by hanging or serving out their time in a hell on earth.

These men chose hell.

Located at the farthest edge of the Yuma Desert, Fort Grierson is a magnet for trouble. Vicious attacks by marauding Apaches and gunslinging outlaws are practically a daily occurrence – and the men holding down the fort are hardly any better. Hence the nickname Fort Misery. When a group of professors show up at the fort in search of lost treasure, a series of gruesome murders begins. The men of Fort Misery will have to find the culprit before they all meet a terrible end . . .

This second book in the Fort Misery series has been a long time coming. Book one came out in February 2023 and I enjoyed reading it.

Captain Kellerman has a number of problems to deal with this time around, not least keeping his soldiers in line, one of whom believes he is Jesus, and dealing with the daily issues of running a fort. His new challenges include the threat of Apache attack. A group of archologists who are digging up his parade ground with President Grant’s permission. Have they unleashed evil spirits? Certainly, the weather has taken a turn for the worse and people are dying since their arrival. Then there’s the gunslingers camped out in the desert. What are they after? Can Kellerman trust them when he enlists their help to fight off the Apache? There’s also the beautiful girl who’s arrived with the professors who seems to be as attracted to him as much as he is to her. And then the murders begin. All the story threads ensure there is never a dull moment in this book.

The author switches regularly between various characters, although he mainly sticks with the officers within the army. The violence is vicious at times, especially the descriptions of the murders. The author also surprised me with one of the characters he killed off and at how soon he did so. Tensions are described well, particularly whilst waiting for the Apache to launch their assaults on the fort. There is also a fair amount of humour thrown in, mostly in conversation, that lightens the tone of the tale now-and-again. 

For a good portion of the book, the author keeps the identity of the mysterious killer a secret but even when known I found myself waiting with bated breath for the next murder – how would it be done and who would be the victim? 

Everything builds to a dramatic finale that brought a close to all the storylines satisfactory, and in some case not as I thought they would. Like in the first book, the final paragraphs of this story seem to be setting up more problems for the soldiers of Fort Misery to deal with, and I for one am looking forward to reading about them whenever the third book appears. 

American readers can get a copy here 

British readers can get a copy here

LONGARM AND SEÑORITA REVENGE

 

LONGARM AND SEÑORITA REVENGE

Book 415 of 436 + 29 Giant Editions

By Tabor Evans

Cover illustration by Milo Sinovcic

Jove, June 2013

The name makes cavalrymen cower, hard cases head for the hills, and bandidos cry, “Vámones!” They call her Señorita Revenge. Savage and merciless, she and her band of kill-crazy Kiowa have been cutting down soldiers like blades of grass in the Texas Big Bend country north of the Rio Grande.

If any man can declaw this homicidal hellcat, it’s Deputy U.S. Marshal Custis Long.

But when Longarm arrives at the cavalry outpost, he finds a half-mad major, his batty, blond daughter, a horribly scarred captain, and a mouth-watering but mysterious maiden – each of whom is hiding a secret. As Longarm puts the pieces together, he draws ever closer to ending this beautiful buckskin-clad butcher’s reign of vengeance… 

Harsh landscapes and tougher characters – brutal characters in many cases. Seductive, stunningly beautiful women who can be as savage as any man should the need arise, and it does, often. Vicious action scenes. Plot twists that took me by surprise. A breath-taking stagecoach ride. This book has them all, and more. Longarm sure has to keep his wits about him or he’ll end up as one of the deceased. 

The story moves along at terrific speed. Chapters ending on cliff-hangers ensuring I’d keep turning the pages. Great characters, especially Señorita Revenge. Mystery behind her true identity – I had my ideas but I wasn’t quite right. Hard-hitting fairly graphic violence and a couple of descriptive sex scenes – the latter to be expected as the Longarm books are billed as adult westerns, but don’t let them put you off reading this book or you’ll be missing out on a great tale.

I’m being purposefully vague on the plot, and naming characters and their relationships to each other as I don’t want to spoil any part of this book for anyone who has yet to read it. 

The author behind the pseudonym of Tabor Evans this time around is Peter Brandvold and his take on Longarm has always been grittier than most of the other authors who wrote for this series. Think spaghetti rather than Hollywood western. 

After finishing Longarm and Señorita Revenge I was left eagerly wanting to hunt through my collection to dig out another of Peter Brandvold’s entries into this series and start reading it straightaway. Recommended. 

American readers can get a copy here

British readers can get a copy here

BULL'S EYE STAGE COACH

BULL’S EYE STAGE COACH

By Billy Hall

Robert Hale, March 2013

Marshal Dwight Stern and his posse are overseeing the loading of a shipment of gold onto a heavily armoured stage coach when they are ambushed in a surprise attack.

With Stern’s fiancée held in the grip of one of the attackers and a double-barrelled shotgun pointing at her head, there’s no time to play nice. With his hand on his gun and a prayer for the gunman to make a mistake and move the gun from Belinda’s head, all he needs is a split second….

The story starts some time before the incident the blurb outlines. We witness Stern laying the law down in his town and also share his concerns about a number of strangers who are arriving and looking for jobs, especially when one of the tries to befriend Belinda. Then there’s another stranger who implies he’s on Stern’s side, but in what, and can he be trusted?

It isn’t long before the robbery takes place and the outlaws get away with the gold and take Belinda with them. Stern races to save her but will he get to her before she’s ravished and killed? 

Billy Hall was the name Billy Hallsted used for his Black Horse Westerns. He had 39 published before he passed in May 2015. I read quite a few of his books and have always enjoyed them. Bull’s Eye Stage Coach proved to be another entertaining read.

Hallsted paced the story beautifully, moving from one tense scene to another making for some suspenseful reading. There’s plenty of gunplay in this tale too. The stranger who says he’s there to help Stern allowed the author to add some mysterious intrigue into the plot. All this combines to make this a difficult book to put down before I discovered how it all played out.

Luckily for me, I have a few more BHWs by Billy Hall in my collection that I’ve yet to read. On the strength of this one, I’m sure it won’t be too long before I pick up another.

American readers can get a copy here.

British readers can get a copy here.

WESTERN STORY - March 1949

WESTERN STORY

British Edition, Vol. VI, No.5

Atlas Publishing, March 1949

Cover art by William R. Leigh

This publication of Street & Smith’s Western Story is a partial reprint of the American issue from September 1948. The UK version first appeared in 1939 and continued, with slight changes to its title, until 1961. By my count, there were 167 issues. 

We start with the short story Light Up Your Six-Gun by Ralph Yergen. He’s a new author to me who wrote just over 100 stories for the western pulps. This quick paced yarn is about a cigar salesman, Horatio Oberlander Holyoke, who finds one of his best customers, Blaine, in jail accused of murder. Holyoke sets out to prove Blaine is innocent. Whist doing so, we find that Holyoke is very handy with a gun. Holyoke has to save himself from a death trap and the explanation of how he realized he was in grave danger is linked to his profession and that put a grin on my face. I also laughed out loud at the final line of the story, that even though I knew it was coming, I still found it funny. This was a very readable tale that left me wondering if Holyoke appeared in any of Yergen’s other stories cos I’d certainly like to read them if he did.

Peter Dawson’s novella, Retribution River, is next. Dawson is a pseudonym used by Jonathan H. Glidden, who had over 100 stories published in the pulps. His story is a land grab tale. A ranch owning banker, Cavendish, decides he wants more land and sets about driving other ranchers away. The main character is Pete Sarran and he teams up with another couple of men who’ve been driven out. Riding with them is a man named Brazos who none of them know. Brazos talks them into getting back at Cavendish by robbing his bank. The raid doesn’t go according to plan and Brazos rides off with the loot. Sarran was right to mistrust Brazos and sets out to find the double-crosser and there’s a surprise waiting for him when he does track down his quarry. I’ve not read many stories by Glidden, but I’ve enjoyed the handful I have, and Retribution River was just as good as any of them, even though it did have a predictable plot. 

Another novella follows, Mavericks of Moonrock Range by Rod Patterson, who is another author I haven’t read before. Patterson had over 200 stories published in western pulps. Patterson pulled me into his tale immediately with questions that needed answers. Clyde Desbrow sees a note in a newspaper telling him to return to his father’s ranch by a specific date if he wants to claim his inheritance. What he finds at the ranch shocks him but he intends to sort out the wrongs he sees happening in his home. Patterson’s writes well, his prose creating a dark tone to a story filled with tense scenes and intrigue. I can’t really say anymore without spoiling it other than to say I wasn’t a fan of the nick-of-time ending which made me think the author did this as he was running out of pages. This story, for me, would have been much better longer with a bit more explanation as to why certain characters did what they did. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this tale a lot and am eager to read more of Patterson’s work.

Next we have a novelette by Wayne D. Overholser called The Long Haul. Overholser had just over 400 western tales under his own name and a more under a variety of pseudonyms published in western pulps. The Long Haul tells the tale of a decision lawman Lance Gregg has to make: does he take in a wanted man as the law says he should or let him go out in a blaze of glory taking down other outlaws? That’s all there is to the plot, but it was enough to keep me turning the pages to see which choice Gregg would make. The tales ends with a swift shootout that brings everything to a satisfactory conclusion.

Walt Coburn’s Guns Across the Rio Grande is a novella that tells the story of The Rio Kid who has been falsely accused of murdering a Texas Ranger. The Ranger’s Captain, Jess Clayton, doesn’t believe the Kid, whose real name is Carlos McCarty, is the killer. Clayton helps the Kid escape from jail and then they set out to track down and bring to justice the real murderer which involves a cattle drive to tempt some rustlers to steal the herd. This is a fast paced read that includes some great action scenes. I enjoyed reading it, even though it was obvious how things would turn out. I did have to take my time with some of the speech as Coburn writes it as his characters say it, for example the Mexican Pepe says “Por Dios, ees een my blood to be a gon fighter!” I do find this kind of writing adds flavour to these stories so it’s welcomed by me if not excessively done as it can really slow a story down if you have to re-read it to understand what is being said. Coburn was a popular author for the western pulps and had around 800 stories published in them.  

The last tale is a novella by Michael Trent called Badlands Showdown. Trent had nine stories published across a variety of western pulps so is probably the least known of the authors featured in this issue of Western Story. Jim Dunstan, foreman of the Aurora Land & Cattle Company is determined to bring an end to the rustling in the area. Trouble is, it seems a friend is passing on information to the gang of outlaws which, as distasteful as exposing who this will be, Dunstan sums it up by saying “Guilt and friendship don’t go together.” In such a short story it was easy to work out who the bad guy was and who would get the girl, but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this story. 

This British issue of Western Story also includes the poem Chuckwagon Menu by S. Omar Barker and the very short column Range Savvy by Gene King, neither of which struck a chord with me.

This pulp magazine also contains a bit of information about cover artist William R. Leigh telling us he was an author as well as an artist. Leigh wrote short stories on Indian life that appeared in a variety of American magazines. The story The Western Pony both written and illustrated by Leigh was named as one of the fifty best books of 1933 by the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Overall, I thought this was a good issue of Western Story as I enjoyed all the stories it contained.