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.