A NOTCH WITH NO NAME

A NOTCH WITH NO NAME

By Walt Beaumont

A Cleveland Western (No. 1470) from Cleveland Publishing – year unknown.

Although I’ve been aware of the author name Walt Beaumont for a long time this is the first story I’ve read by him. I found his style very easy to read and the pace of the tale was excellent as it built to the inevitable showdown and I was never quite sure how it would end.

The story starts with a wedding, one that the families of the bride and groom are opposed to. There is a long running feud between them. The marriage takes place and the expected fight comes when both families find themselves in the same bar.

Beaumont tells his tale through the Brannigan family, with the main character being Scott Brannigan who is doing his best to keep the peace, to end the long running animosity. 

There’s a third family involved too. Frank Haskell wants to buy some of the Brannigan land, but Scott’s mother, Kate, refuses to sell. Scott is involved with Haskell’s daughter Greer which further complicates matters. More problems arrive in the form of two drifting gunhands who see a way of making money out of the troubles revolving around the Brannigan’s, the Allen’s and the Haskell’s. If that isn’t enough, Steve Brannigan is having an affair with the Sheriff’s wife.

At first confrontations are dealt with by bitter words or fists. Then the killings begin and members of both the Brannigan and the Allen families fall victim. Words of unfounded blame see Kate Brannigan lead her family in an all-out assault on the Allen’s. Only the deaths of her long-time enemies will satisfy her. 

A Notch with No Name is a fairly straight-forward feud western that contains one or two easy to predict twists but does include a couple of surprising deaths. The dialogue is lively and the feelings of hate and despair comes across strongly. The fight scenes are well written too. As to who would be alive at the end became impossible to predict.

After reading this book and being thoroughly entertained I was left looking forward to reading more of Walt Beaumont's work soon.

SIX GRAVES TO SUNRISE

 

SIX GRAVES TO SUNRISE

By Brett McKinley

A Cleveland Western (No. 1149) from Cleveland Publishing – year unknown.

As you can see from the cover image the author is announced as being Brett McKinley, inside it states that it is by Emerson Dodge. Before anyone wastes anytime trying to work out just which of them actually wrote Six Graves to Sunrise I’ll tell you that McKinley and Dodge are both pseudonyms for the same person; author Paul Wheelahan. 

Six Graves to Sunrise is a well-written traditional western the moves forward at a gallop. The plot turns up often in westerns; that of a man, Shannon, accused of a murder he didn’t commit and his hunting down of the real killer to clear his name. There’s a touch of love interest too, although that only takes up a very small part of the story. Wheelahan regularly switches between Shannon and his lawman friend, Gault, as they both hunt down their prey, eventually teaming up to do so. Wheelahan also tells of what Cherneck, the real killer, is doing. Cherneck joins forces with another cold killer, Lucky Kelso, and a couple of other outlaws. Each time we read about them the bodies pile up – which made me question the title as there are a lot more than six people who die as the trail leads to the town of Sunrise. There’s a sub-plot too in that Gault has history with Kelso.

Character studies are good and the action scenes are described vividly, especially the attack on an iron payroll wagon. There is one little mistake, and if you blink, you’ll probably miss it. A mule becomes a horse momentarily before becoming a mule again. 

Like other books I’ve read by Paul Wheelahan Six Graves to Sunrise proved to be an entertaining read. 

Paul Wheelahan has had over eight hundred westerns published under a variety of pseudonyms. 

BADGE FOR BRADDOCK

 

BADGE FOR BRADDOCK

By Kirk Hamilton

A Coronado Western (No. 1063) from Cleveland Publishing – year unknown.

Kirk Hamilton is one of a handful of pseudonyms used by Australian author Keith Hetherington; a writer who had 800 – 1,000 stories published. Those put out by Cleveland fall into the novella category of story length.

Due to the short length of this tale, there is no room for padding, no room for anything that doesn’t propel the story forwards at a brisk pace. Braddock is a bounty hunter, a type of man despised by many, especially when his latest prey is brought in dead and backshot. The townspeople want him gone as soon as possible. Only thing is it’ll take a while for his bounty money to be authorized, meaning Braddock will have to hang around the town of Beaumont for a few days.

Beaumont has a new, inexperienced lawman, Kip Pickett. The local bigwigs are moulding the young sheriff into a man they can control as they conspire to run the town. When Pickett learns that Braddock is an ex-lawman he hires the bounty hunter as his deputy, much to the disgust of the town’s big shots. A fired stagecoach guard learns of some valuable paperwork being held in the safe of the stageline and plots to steal it with the blessing of the town’s criminal element but Braddock could be a problem so he’ll have to be removed, permanently. There’s more to the story than that though, such as the young woman who runs the stageline hating bounty hunters and thus despising Braddock even though he’s trying to help her. This adds for some electrifying dialogue between the two.

There’s plenty of action and the author took me by surprise with one shooting. The final showdown was exciting and even though it finished the story as expected it did bring about a satisfying conclusion to the tale. 

I’ve yet to be disappointed by anything written by Keith Hetherington and this story proved to be another great tale from him that left me looking forward to reading more of his work very soon.

START SHOOTING, TEXANS

LARRY & STRETCH

By Marshall Grover

A Cougar Western from Cleveland Publishing, 1961

The tranquillity of South-West Missouri shattered when the Garfield gang made camp on Thunder Mountain.

Abby Garfield, wife of the boss-outlaw, was captured by the wily Hank Todd, marshal of Coreyville. Soon, the citizens of this isolated settlement were in fear of their lives, wondering if they could survive the savage onslaught of the bandit-band, when Garfield came to rescue his woman.

But Hank Todd was a Texan, befriended by two fellow-Texans, already famous as the West’s most notorious trouble-shooters. Larry and Stretch couldn’t be deterred by superior numbers, for they had never learned the meaning of fear.

As far as I can tell, this is the 68th Larry and Stretch western put out by Cougar. Sometime later Horwitz took over the publishing of the series and started with their own number one. Altogether there are 440+ Larry and Stretch books. In America Bantam published some of them, but for legal reasons the author’s name was changed to Marshall McCoy and Larry and Stretch became Larry and Streak. Marshall Grover/McCoy is a pseudonym for Australian author Leonard Meares and he wrote 746 westerns under a variety of pennames.  

Meares introduces a lot of great characters, be they outlaws, lawmen or citizens, which include a memorable house maid and a confederate soldier that doesn’t know the Civil War has been over for years. Larry and Stretch don’t take centre stage for the first half or so of this story, in fact they hardly appear. They do have a novel way of getting free board and feed right at the beginning, which is how they become involved with Hank Todd and the troubles facing the town of Coreyville.

The author also includes humour, be that via dialogue or situations. One of the incidents that put a big grin on my face being Todd’s arrest of Abby Garfield and his way of getting her to his jail. The story isn’t short on action either and this involves fist-fights, gunplay and even a cannon. As the situation becomes more desperate Larry and Stretch step forward to orchestrate the defence of Coreyville and set out to take down the Garfield gang. 

Start Shooting, Texans proved to be a very entertaining read that made me wonder why I haven’t read one for such a long time, probably before Western Fiction Review was ever thought of. What I do know, is it won’t be anywhere near as long before I read another.

BOOTHILL BRAND

By Kirk Hamilton

Cougar Books, date unknown

It was three years ago they’d run him out. Lou still bore the mark of Boothill on his chest – the brand he’d carry till he died. And the old man had waited for him to scream as they did it, and looked somehow disappointed when he didn’t.

“Come back here, Lou,” the old man had said meaningly, “And you die!”

They had thrown him off the ranch then. Without a horse, without his guns, with only what he stood up in. And Shane had stood and watched, her face expressionless.

He’s come back now. Come back to kill the old man, to kill Johnny Wena if he was still around, to humble the proud Shane and break her life for her as she had broken his.

Cougar books were part of Cleveland Publishing and like the majority of their publications they don’t carry a date, so it’s not easy to find out when they were published. This story is a re-issue, complete and unabridged, except for a title change from Danger Spread to Boothill Brand, which was originally put out under the Cleveland name. I’ve included the original below and I think the cover art of that first issue fits the story a lot better as it does illustrate a scene from the tale.

Lou Masters makes for an engaging lead character. He’s tough, quick with a gun, yet naïve, blinded by his love for Shane which leads him into many dangerous and life-threatening situations. Shane isn’t the only woman who will cause problems for him as he’s caught the eye of Lena Blair. There are some excellent twists and turns to the plot that sees both of these women get Lou on the wrong end of a gun.

The story never lets up in its fast pace as Lou is framed, struggles to recognize who is his enemy and who he can trust. Vicious gunmen arrive and it seems no-one is safe from their desire to take what they want and kill anyone who opposes them. There’s plenty of gunplay before everything leads to Lou having to face unbeatable odds which makes for a nail-biting climax. 

Boothill Brand proved to be an excellent read, but then again, I thought it would having enjoyed many westerns by this author already. Kirk Hamilton is a pseudonym, one of a handful, used by Keith Hetherington, an Australian author who has had well over 600 stories published – probably closer to 1,000 – and he comes highly recommended by me.

Trail to Nowhere

THE LONER 2

By Sheldon B. Cole

Piccadilly Publishing, December 2019

Originally published by The Cleveland Publishing Co., 1967

Blake Durant was on his way to Crimson Falls when he stopped by Jessica Gray’s ranch for water. Before he could move on again, the young widow’s son came galloping into the yard, badly beaten. Three men had stolen their two calves and beaten young Jess when he tried to stop them. Much as he knew he should just ride on. Blake knew he couldn’t. So, he stood shoulder to shoulder with the young widow and her son against a vicious land-baron with an army of gunnies on his payroll. And when the gunsmoke finally cleared, the winner would take all!

A few months ago I read the first entry in this series and really enjoyed it. Finally, I’ve found time to read the second. That first book only revealed a sketchy background to hero Blake Durant and I surmised that the author would probably reveal more as the series progressed. I was correct, as this tale divulges more about Durant’s background, which explains more about his character and hints at why he seems reluctant to act on the advances of the three female leads.

This is a gritty tale, full of hard men and tough women. Durant isn’t backwards in taking the fight to those who he determines are in the wrong, and he’ll do that through threats, fists or guns. These books aren’t long, around 90 pages in length, and the author manages to include a lot of action in his fast-paced, weaving plot. As expected, there isn’t any really graphic sex although sexual desire does play a part in the tale and the descriptions of this are tame, mainly left to the readers imagination. 

If you’re looking for a hard-hitting fast read then the books in this series are certainly worth considering. I’ll definitely be picking up the third real soon as this one proved to be just as enjoyable as the first.  

Sheldon B. Cole is a pseudonym for Australian author Desmond Robert Dunn.

Available from Piccadilly publishing as an ebook.

Trail to Nowhere has just been published in hardback by The Crowood Press under their Black Horse Western line.

Where Guns Talk

THE LONER #1

By Sheldon B. Cole

Piccadilly Publishing, October 2019

Originally published by Cleveland, 1967

Ahead was a cold-blooded killer and an innocent woman who wanted to believe he was no such thing. Behind was a God-fearing tyrant by the name of Isaac Madie and Madie’s three sons, all of them with vengeance in mind.

And Blake Durant was caught smack in the middle.

He wanted to rescue the woman and return a fortune in gold bullion to its rightful owners. But Madie had other ideas. And if it came to that, so did Ringo Nyall, the killer who’d set his mind on the gold … and the girl!

My western book collection contains a handful of Cleveland publications but I’d never got around to reading any of them. My first edition copy of Where Guns Talk was put out under their Bobcat Western line and numbered 405. Although I have read work by some of the authors who wrote for Cleveland, I haven’t read any of Sheldon B. Cole’s stories and as Piccadilly has begun to publish The Loner series in ebook form (along with other Cleveland series) I decided to hunt out my dog-eared copy and give it a go.

Cleveland westerns aren’t very long, this one having 92 pages of fast-paced prose. Each of the ten chapters are titled. 

Blake Durant’s past is hinted at in this opening tale and this adds a hint of mystery to the reasons he gets involved in other people’s troubles, and by rescuing a young woman from three attackers he soon finds himself facing a number of deadly situations where some folk keep their real identity hidden and conceal some or all of the truth about their motivations.

The author presents the reader with some wonderful characters, particularly Isaac Madie, a man who is hard to like but you will feel his pain when things go wrong in the worst way possible. The girl, Angela Grant, is a memorable character too. Watching her slowly realize the man she is fixing to marry may not be all he says he is provides some fascinating reading, and she will also add an unforeseen twist to the end of the story.

Sheldon B. Cole’s descriptions are excellent, and they produced some very visual imagery within my minds eye, especially when reading the hard-hitting action scenes. Everything comes to a neat end and the final act left me with a grin on my face and the desire to read another Loner story soon. 

Sheldon B. Cole is a pseudonym for Australian author Desmond Robert Dunn (1929 – 2003) who wrote over 400 westerns for Cleveland under a variety of pen-names, these being Adam Brady, Sheldon B. Cole, Matt Cregan, Morgan Culp, Shad Denver, Gunn Halliday, Brett Iverson and Walt Renwick. 

Interview: Keith Hetherington

My latest interview is with an author who has had a very impressive number of books published (with more to come), mainly in his homeland of Australia, some of which have been published in America too. These days Hale, in England, publishes his westerns under their Black Horse Western banner. The man in question is Keith Hetherington, so over to Keith…

First I want to thank you for agreeing to answer my questions.

Thanks for asking me to do the interview.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

Always liked writing little vignettes, trying to describe 'action' sequences I saw in a film or the Saturday Afternoon Serial at local cinemas. Used to 'make' my own books when I was about 12, pasting the pages together (no office staplers in those days, though sometimes I removed staples from old comics or books I didn't want and used them.) Had a few essays read out to classes and one went the rounds of the entire school - something called The Dahlia, as I recall: I was amazed, for the last thing I was interested in at that age was flowers and gardening - used to bust a boiler trying to get out of mowing the lawns at weekends. It was wartime, so most stories I wrote were military-oriented, with lots of blood and guts.



What was the first novel you had published and if this wasn’t a western what was your first western?

Had an accident at work in my early teens and spent a week at home. Read a story called "Jailbreak Justice' in a book of cowboy stories and thought I could write as good or better yarn. Filled a dozen or so pages in an exercise book, called it THE TEXAN (very original) and mailed it away. To my surprise (not to mention delight) a couple of months later I received a cheque for six pounds fifteen. Thought I was made: didn't bank that cheque for ages, pinned it to my bedroom door. Anyway, that was the start, they wanted more stories and I began writing fairly regularly and Cleveland Publications bought out the original company and asked for 'novelettes' of about 20,000 words. These gradually got up to 48,000 words though dropped back progressively down to about 40,000. Meantime I wrote short adventure stories for 'men’s magazines', honing the writing skills.

Being Australian what made you choose to write westerns of all the genres out there?

I always liked the bush stories of our famous Aussie author Ion Idriess, full of outback action and bush-craft. I used the Aussie bush for background to my adventure yarns but, influenced by the many Saturday afternoon serials at the local cinema, mostly Westerns with heroes like Buck Jones, Johnny Mack Brown, Dick Foran and so on - if you don't recognise the names it only means I'm older than you are! But I had a Daisy air rifle like most Aussie kids at that time, and it became a Winchester, knocking off the Injuns in every spare minute I could get into the bush with Our Mob - a gang of larrikin Aussie kids out for blood.

Which writers influence you?

At the time, I was influenced by Zane Grey and Walt Slade/Jackson Cole - house names of authors of the Jim Hatfield yarns in the American Western magazines - which we couldn't get enough of. My father was a Zane Grey fan and also influenced me - by way of encouragement to keep on writing.

Which western writers would you recommend?

Which writers would I recommend now? Well, I like Elmore Leonard, both his thrillers and his Westerns - he's got a style all his own, laconic, tough, knowledgeable. I used to read a lot of Frank C. Robertson in the old Collins White Circle Westerns - Dad and I would toss a coin to see who got to read the current one first. Norman Fox and, of course, the Master, Luke Short. Luke constructed his stories extremely well, could make his characters come alive, and wasn't afraid to give his hero a short temper, resulting in some brutal fights. I credit him with saving me from sea sickness in 1953 when I was sailing to see the world: we hit seventy foot waves in the Great Australian Bight - or they hit us, more accurately - and my mate was pea-green (but not with envy) and I happened to be reading HIGH VERMLLION by Luke. There was this tremendous fist fight - went for pages - I parked in a tight corner on deck, nearly freezing, concentrated on that fight and what came after and escaped being sea sick...Thank you, Luke!

Which past western would you like to see back in print and why is this?

Luke Short's stuff is still eminently readable, though mostly out of print. As I mentioned earlier, Elmore Leonard usually comes up with a good yarn. Zane Grey is very dated now though I liked his SHADOW ON THE TRAIL immensely (the book a gift from my father, incidentally).

Les Savage Jnr. wrote a good one called TREASURE OF THE BRASADA, which would probably be worth a re-run, but I can't really nail down any particular title right now.

How many westerns have you had published to date?

I believe I've published over 600 (Keith Chapman thinks it might be closer to 1,000), but I don't really know. Let's just say 'lots'! Sorry if that's a cop-out.

Having written so many books how easy is it to keep coming up with new stories and where does your inspiration come from?

I've never had much trouble coming up with a new storyline. Can't sat HOW, or WHY, but it must just be the kind of mind I've got. I really like constructing a yarn, fitting the pieces in to make it not only readable and coherent but LIKED (or a stronger word if you like!)

Do you work on more than one book at a time?

I don't intentionally work on more than one book at a time, but more often than not, while writing one, something will strike a spark for another idea and I quickly make a note (has to be MIGHTY quick, now I've turned 80!) and I may start developing it a little more after I've done the day's work on the other.

Have any of your Cleveland characters appeared in a Black Horse Western?

I don't think I've used any of my Cleveland characters in books I've written for Hale. Maybe used the same name unintentionally, but I never carried forth any series character.

You’ve written stories about Bronco Madigan under two different Black Horse Western pseudonyms, and fans of Madigan may not realize there are other books out there under a different authors name. Why did you decide to put them out under two names?

The two different names for the Bronco Madigan series came about through my own laxity. I picked the wrong one to head up the title page (twice!) but there was no real reason for it.

Over the years what changes have you seen in what you can or cannot include in a western?

There's not much that hasn't appeared in Westerns over the years, including clinically described sex and graphic violence. I think Cleveland toned-down a couple of my more violent descriptions but I haven't really noticed any big taboos - you can still find Westerns with a sex scene or two (and why not? Those guys were 'real men' and anyone knows real men have sex! ) Who with, is maybe another thing - recall BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN? Didn't believe a word of it. Incest would be out, I think, but I don't know: it's just that I haven't encountered it in any Westerns I've read. (And wouldn't want to.) Hell, in this day and age you never know what you'll find in print, but on a personal note, I just try to stick to the fist fights and shootouts, but I have been known to mention the odd rape or two...I don't feel that's a very satisfactory answer to your question, but don't seem to be able to come up with anything else.

Which of your westerns would you recommend to someone who hasn’t read any of your work yet and why?

LONER FROM LARAMIE was my first Western for Hale. It's more or less an indication of my style and content and, even if I do say so myself, it's not a bad yarn. (But I never think what I write is anything out of the ordinary - I just enjoy doing it, and maybe what comes across is my enthusiasm.

Is there still a big market for westerns in Australia?

There is no market for publishing Westerns in Australia that I know of. Cleveland still run mostly on re-issues (some of mine as far back as the late 60's or early 70's) with an occasional 'new’ one - which I suspect is a manuscript Cleveland bought from one of its writers some years ago and had been filed away and finally unearthed. They still sell well here - but there's no other Western publisher that I know of.

What do you think of the western genre today and what do you think the future holds for the western?

I'm optimistic: I truly believe the Western genre is one genre that will keep on keeping-on (as they say in a certain TV paint commercial). That and Romance - I think both will always find a ready audience - mind, I'm not so sure it'll be the written word (on paper, that is) maybe only electronically. How that will affect writers like you and me and our other compadres I'm not sure.

You haven’t just written westerns, can you please tell us a little about your other books, both fictional and non-fiction.

I like to write thrillers, always have, the 'private-eye' type. Heavily influenced by Raymond Chandler or course, and I like writing the occasional adventure story. Hale have published some of mine over the years. A few come to mind JUDAS COAST; DRAGON OUT OF THE SOUTH; THE NAKED NEMSIS, HAMMERHEAD REEF.

I wrote one boys' adventure book way back in 1966, was published in England and the U.S. as well as Australia: THE SCUBA BUCCANEERS under the pen name of James Keith. My Christian names reversed. I've done a lot of short stories as mentioned earlier, worked as a TV scriptwriter for 5 and a half years, all Aussie shows: HOMICIDE; MATLOCK POLICE; DIVISION 4; SOLO ONE; THE BOX; THE SPOILER; CHOPPER SQUAD, ETC. I did one film script for a spy yarn set in the Philippines, but the company went broke before it was filmed.

Also wrote a book about metal detectors when I was treasure hunting for a while, mostly on beaches, but some outback stuff; as well. BEACHCOMBING WITH A METAL DETECTOR. Sold pretty well, but too dated now what with all the high-tech machines around.

Worked as a journalist for 11 years for the Queensland Health Education Council, writing weekly articles for newspapers on health subjects and Radio Plays dramatising same. (Must have been mad, but can still remember belting out a series on Smoking and Lung Cancer with a packet of cigarettes beside my typewriter - and going through them mighty fast!)

Do you think paper produced books will ever be replaced with electronic books?

I don't think electronic books will ever completely replace printed books, but they're bound to have a wide appeal - and it might not be so easy to make a crust, as we say in Oz, because the whole deal will be changed: copyright will be up the spout, for sure; publishers won't get much of a look-in - so where does that leave the author? Poorer than bloody usual! Just hope the idea never takes on in stampede mode!

What is your favourite western movie and why?

WESTERN UNION was my favourite Western movie for over forty years and is still way up there - but it has company now, SEVEN MEN FROM NOW. Both star Randolph Scott (my favourite cowboy - and I'm still occasionally guilty of describing my heroes as having some Scott attributes) But SEVEN MEN FROM NOW has a terrific opening, great dialogue and editing - and facial expressions, also attention to detail, like Randy, casually changing the coffee mug from his gunhand to his left hand and nudging back his rain-drenched slicker.... Not a 'big' western, budget-wise, but a tough story and great characters - including Lee Marvin doing the honours as a likeable villain.

Finally what do you read for pleasure?

I read just about anything I find interesting - fiction, true adventure, historical - I can always enjoy a 'good' book of whatever genre as long as its well written and has a plot that interests me.