Dead Man's Brand

By Norbert Davis

Black Dog Books, 2011

Dead Man’s Brand is a superb collection of eight stories written by Norbert Davis, a writer perhaps better known for his mystery and detective fiction. In this book, Tom Roberts of Black Dog Books has brought together eight of his western stories, the first of which was made into a Hollywood film under the new title of Hands Across the Rockies. These stories originally appeared in the pulps such as Star Western and were published in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s.

The eight stories are sandwiched between a fascinating introduction by Bill Pronzini in which he outlines Norbert Davis’ publishing history, and an Appendix in which Ed Hulse looks in detail at how A Gunsmoke Case for Major Cain was turned into a Hollywood film.

Contents:

A Gunsmoke Case for Major Cain

Their Guardian from Hell

Leetown’s One-Man Army

Dead Man’s Brand

The Gunsmoke Banker Rides In

Death Creeps

Sign of the Sidewinder

Boot-Hill Bait

Due to the time these stories were first published I expected them to be filled with old cowboy lingo and was surprised to find this wasn’t true, other than one or two terms and the lack of bad language these tales could have been written today. I was also surprised at how dark some of these stories are, none really feature a white-hat, clean-cut hero. The lead roles in Davis’ stories are taken by what I would call anti-heroes, tough men who won’t let anything stop them achieving their goals. Davis’ often includes moments of humour to lighten these darker themes.

Each story is action packed and fast paced. The plots are well thought out and filled with twists and turns. Opening sentences grabbing the readers’ attention instantly, making you want to read more to discover just what is going on, and then you’ll find yourself wondering how everything will be resolved making it impossible to stop reading a story once started: for instance how can the main character in the title story convince anyone that he hasn’t killed himself to gain an inheritance? 

So, once more, praise must be given to Tom Roberts for producing this excellent book and bringing Norbert Davis’ western work back into the limelight. This is definitely a book all western fans should own.

Unmasked

Edited by Tom Roberts

Black Dog Books, 2011

Everyone recognizes the names of Hopalong Cassidy, the Lone Ranger, Zorro and the Cisco Kid. But how many actually know the characters from their fictional roots? Years before appearing in film, on radio and television, their creators painted a rather different picture of each than Hollywood presented on the silver screen.

Unmasked collects the first appearances of Hopalong Cassidy, the Cisco Kid and Zorro plus a forgotten novel of the Lone Ranger.

Once again Black Dog Books presents the reader with a quality book that proves to be both entertaining and fascinating. The book begins with a brief look at the history of each of the four characters, concentrating mostly on their film and TV appearances, written by Francis M. Nevins. This informative introduction includes a number of black and white reproductions of film stills, posters and pulp covers.

Tom Roberts writes a short editorial essay to explain the origins of each story, or set of stories in the case of Hopalong Cassidy, that provides some great background to the tales, their writers and their heroes.

It’s here that I must admit to never having read anything from any of the authors in this collection before, nor have I ever seen a Hopalong Cassidy film or show, likewise with the Cisco Kid. Zorro I’ve seen a couple of times, with the Lone Ranger being the most familiar to me from TV. This all means that I didn’t have any real knowledge to compare what is on offer here with, so this is where Tom Roberts essays came into their own.

The six Hopalong Cassidy tales where all originally published in 1906, except the first one that is from 1905, and it’s these that use the most ‘cowboy dialogue’ that I found I had to read carefully to understand at times. Due to this these stories do come across as somewhat dated, so I was surprised by the Cisco Kid story that was published in 1907 as I expected more of the same, and didn’t get it – sure there is some but it is not used anywhere near as heavily as in those Hopalong adventures.

The Cisco Kid story proved to be my favourite. This tale presents the Kid as a cruel outlaw who enjoys killing just for fun. The story has a neat twist, although it is easy to see it coming, but nevertheless makes for a memorable ending. I was also surprised by the dark tone to this story.

The Zorro tale (from1919) is in fact an excerpt from a much longer story, but you don’t need to know what has gone before to enjoy it and get the flavour of Zorro’s character.

Finally there is the Lone Ranger novel, written by an unknown author. A story published in 1937, which didn’t come across as being dated, and offers the reader an intriguing mix of action and mystery as the Lone Ranger attempts to prove a wrongly accused young mans innocence. Again the ending was somewhat predictable but it was great fun getting there.

Unmasked is a book that should most definitely be added to all western fans collections.

Contents:

Hopalong Cassidy by Clarence E. Mulford

The Fight at Buckskin

The Vagrant Sioux

Trials of a Peaceful Puncher

Hopalong Keeps His Word

The Advent of McAllister

Holding the Claim

The Cisco Kid by O. Henry

The Caballero’s Way

Zorro by Johnston McCulley

The Curse of Capistrano (excerpt)

The Lone Ranger by Anonymous

The Masked Rider’s Justice

Nomad's Trail

The Saga of Simon Bolivar Grimes, Volume 1

By E. Hoffmann Price

Black Dog Books, 2011

Hit the owlhoot trail as naïve Simon Bolivar Grimes, tassel-headed youth from Georgia, sets off for Crockett County, Texas searching for his Uncle Carter. Grimes will boast, brawl, ramble and roll his way from outlaw to hero, whilst learning a little bit about loving along the way.

After a very informative introduction by one of today’s most respected western authors, James Reasoner, Nomad’s Trail then presents the reader with the first twelve stories in the long-running Grimes saga, which made their debut in the very first issue of Spicy Western Stories in November 1936. These early tales have strong links to each other as the storyline of searching for Uncle Carter ties them together as do a number of other reoccurring characters. Once his Uncle has been found and left behind new characters move along with Grimes from tale to tale.

Grimes makes for an engaging hero, his inexperience placing him in some dangerous situations that only his super-fast ability with his guns get him out of alive. Due to being written for Spicy Western Stories Grimes comes into contact with many young women who seem to lose their clothes at some point. Grimes also makes some amazing discoveries about women, like that they have legs! (You’ll have to read it to fully appreciate that comment)

Descriptions are well written and most of the plots are fairly straightforward although many contain a twist or two. The dialogue is of the times, and I must admit I did have to read some of it more than once to fully understand what was being said, but this all adds to the charm of these stories. There’s plenty of action too, be it using guns or fists.

This really is a great collection of stories and as the subtitle is The Saga of Simon Bolivar Grimes, Volume 1 I can only assume that Volume 2 will soon follow. I for one will be looking forward to that being published.

Lust of the Lawless

By Robert Leslie Bellem

Black Dog Books, 2010

Way back before I was born there was a pulp called Spicy Western Stories and this book brings together all of Robert Leslie Bellem’s output for them, the first, Powdersmoke Passion, being published in December 1936, and his final story Gold – and a Girl, appearing in December 1938.

Contents:

Meat Hunter

Killer’s Brand

Powdersmoke Passion

Bait for a Mantrap

Brand of the Question-Mark

Lust of the Lawless

Coward Man’s Size

Gold – and a Girl

The above titles are sandwiched between an excellent introduction by James Reasoner, and a fascinating couple of pages about the author written by Tom Roberts, owner of Black Dog Books.

All these stories move forwards at tremendous pace, they are filled with action and terrific characters. Many of the women being nearly as tough as the male leads – and being as these stories appeared in a Spicy pulp, they all seem to loose their clothes at some point, often whilst seducing the hero so they can steal his pistol. In fact most of these stories do seem to follow a similar pattern so when one didn’t it came as a great surprise, this tale was written in the first person whereas the others are all in the third. A number of these stories also contain a twist or two but overall they have straightforward plots.

I was surprised by how little these stories come across as dated, true there is some dialogue of the times, particularly when Mexicans speak, and there are plenty of terms we don’t see that often in today’s westerns. Some of the violence is quite graphic in its description. All this, for me, adds to the charm of this great collection of short stories.

I’d originally planned to read these stories over a few days but found myself reading one then thinking ‘just one more’ and before I knew it I’d read the lot. For me, it really is a shame that Robert Leslie Bellem didn’t write more westerns, as I found all of these to be highly entertaining and I’d certainly recommend this book to all fans of the genre.

Check out Black Dog Books here.