SHORTY

 

SHORTY
By Clifton Adams
Fontana Books, 1969 and 1976
Originally published in 1966

When Shorty Gibbs rode into Hardrow Texas with a bullet wound in his skull and a grudge against the man who put it there, he was surprised to hear he was supposed to be dead and his murderer had already been strung up by a mob.

But he was even more surprised when he realized that most of the population was sorry to hear about his recovery and were anxious to run him out of Hardrow, dead or alive…

Shorty Gibbs is a small man with an even shorter temper that boils over before he has time to think about the consequences, and most of the time that’s fine with him. Figuring out who shot him and why sees his short fuse get him into all kinds of trouble and often at odds with the town marshal, Tooms. Gibbs holds the lawman partly responsible for the situation he is now in – jobless, homeless and disliked. 

Clifton Adams sticks mainly with Gibbs’ thoughts as he attempts to solve the mysteries surrounding his attempted murder. Why would someone want to kill him and steal his mail pouch? Why had an innocent man been strung up? How is the old sheepherder who’d saved his life involved – if indeed he is? Why does a group of ranchers want him out of town? It’s these questions and more that kept me eagerly turning the pages as bursts of violence hint at the shocking revelations to come in a tense final showdown when Gibb’s and a couple of others face a much larger force. 

I’m purposely being vague about the plot of this fast-moving hard-boiled tale of guilt and the changing world so as not to spoil it for anyone. You’ll definitely start having your own ideas about what is going on as I did, but Adams will soon throw you off track as he springs twist after twist to his engaging plot. 

Shorty is another extremely good read from Clifton Adams, an author who rapidly climbs higher and higher on my favourite western author list with each book I read by him.