GALLOWS GHOST

GALLOW GHOST

By Barry Cord

Ace Books, 1967

The man Hell rejected. When the cold swept over the Texas Badlands, it brought something even more deadly with it: a force so violent and evil that even the harsh winter was nothing compared to it

A lone rider came out of the infamous outlaw hideout in the Tenejos hills. That rider called himself by the name of a man who had been hanged twenty years before – and he was riding now to bring vengeance and terror on those who had brought him to the gallows.

This slim, strangely dapper gunman rode into the rangeland and left death and destruction on his trail – but there was one man he especially wanted. That was young U.S. Marshal Colby Jackson, the son of the man who had done the hanging.

But how could Colby shoot it out with a man who was already dead?

This very fast-moving story begins with a one-man massacre, and it’s not just people he kills. Livestock is slaughtered too and a line shack destroyed. And the killing spree doesn’t end there. One of the acts of this dead man is to kidnap a young woman to bring Marshal Colby Jackson to him and it isn’t long before Jackson is gunned down – but he survives and wants answers. Who is this mystery gunman and why does he want to kill Jackson and others? Is he really a spirit returned from the dead wanting revenge? Will the lawman be able to find and free the kidnapped girl? 

Barry Cord’s tale becomes more and more gripping as the lawman tries to track down a ghost. At times the story takes on a very dark tone as some of the scenes depict cruelty in very visual prose. The author switches between characters regularly often leaving them in dangerous situations when changing to someone else. Cord does let the reader know what’s going on partway through the story but that seemed to add more tension to the tale rather than giving away too much. At no time did I predict the outcome of the story and I was never quite sure who would be left alive at the end of the book.

Barry Cord is a pseudonym for author Peter Germano and Gallows Ghost is an excellent example of why I like his work so much and once again I was left looking forward to reading another of his books very soon.

My copy of Gallows Ghost is part of an Ace Double and it is backed by Room to Swing a Loop by Stephen Payne. 

WESTERN NOVELS and Short Stories

 

WESTERN NOVELS and Short Stories
British Edition, Vol. 1, No. 5
L. Miller & Son Ltd. London

According to the FictionMags Index, 105 issues of this pulp were published in America. Only a handful came out in the UK – eight published by L. Miller & Son, and another three were published by Thorpe & Porter. I only own two, both from L. Miller & Son, neither of which contain a date to indicate the year it came out. The stories in the UK editions seem to have been sourced from a variety of American pulps.

Vol. 1, No. 5 has 64 pages and the opening novella takes up 35 of those pages. The Revenge by Joseph Chadwick is the second story I’ve read by him. Dan Kirby was now in a position to pay back those who sent him down some dark trails. Kirby had amassed a small fortune and was now able to buy the ranch that had got rid of him. He’s now a hard man and begins kicking the small squatter ranchers off his land. He also marries the girl he loved back then, even though she doesn’t appear happy by this and they live in separate buildings on his ranch. Some of the squatters won’t go without a fight. Then there’s the man who Kirby’s new wife was in a relationship with before Kirby returned. Does Nan still have feelings for him? Chadwick pulled me into the story easily, and I soon wanted to find out what would become of Kirby. Would he find happiness? Would his ranch succeed? His hard nature and his determination to have his revenge against those who’d wronged him soon had me doubting he’d achieve happiness. There’s plenty of tough talk and action before everything is resolved. Chadwick even explaining what happens in future years to the survivors. 

Next, we have the short story Apache Smoke by Clifton Adams. This is the grittiest tale in this pulp and tells the story of Matt Reppy’s attempt to get out of Apache country with his gold samples. Making Reppy’s task even more difficult is the fact he is on foot, with little food or water and can only risk travelling at night. The situation gets worse when he meets another man who has trouble walking due to an arrow wound in his leg. When this stranger, Talbert, discovers Reppy’s gold, he decides he wants it for himself and he gets the drop of Reppy. Finding out whether one of them, or both escape the Apaches provided some tense reading making this the best story in this issue of Western Novels and Short Stories.

Backfire Loot by Lawrence A. Keating is another short story. This one tells of when Sheriff Bill Dowd conducted a funeral for a cat that almost led to another funeral – his own. This is a bank robbery tale with the added plotline of a dead cat that distracts Dowd from his duty. Saying anymore will ruin it for anyone who reads this so all I’ll add is that I found it a fun read even though the twist ending was easy to predict. 

The fourth story, The Cast-Iron Alibi by Gunnison Steele (real name B. W. Gardner) seemed out of place in a western pulp to me. Nick Ryan could prove he wasn’t the murderer being sought for – prove it with the finality of the grave. This short story is a crime thriller in the noir style set in modern times. It was certainly a good read and had an excellent sting-in-the-tale. 

The final tale was another short story and this was Education of a Cowman by Stephen Payne. John Webb had a lot of qualities, but patience with men less strong than himself wasn’t one of those qualities and this is demonstrated time and again as he sets up a new ranch. Succeeding in this venture is all that matters, whatever the cost. Webb is on the path of becoming a lonely bitter man. It’s down to a life-long friend to make him see sense and become more human again. And that’s the plot of this one – or what little plot there is. Most of the action takes place off stage as the story progresses rapidly in years. It’s not gripping in any way and I really didn’t care what happened to Webb. I also found Stephen Payne’s writing style difficult to follow as it just didn’t hold my attention. I don’t think I’ve read anything by Payne before and on the strength of this I won’t be rushing out to find more of his work.

This is not the best pulp I’ve read but I’m glad I did as I really enjoyed Clifton Adams tale. Joseph Chadwick and Lawrence A. Keating also provided entertaining reads. Gunnison Steele’s story was a surprise as to it not being a western but I did enjoy it. 

As I said at the beginning, the UK editions of Western Novels and Short Stories took their yarns from a number of different American pulps, so here’s a list of where they originally came from:

The Revenge by Joseph Chadwick – Western Novels and Short Stories, December 1952

Apache Smoke by Clifton Adams – Western Novels and Short Stories, December 1952

Backfire Loot by Lawrence A. Keating – All Western Magazine, November 1937

The Cast-Iron Alibi by Gunnison Steele – I’ve not been able to discover where this first appeared.

Education of a Cowman by Stephen Payne – Western Novels and Short Stories, December 1952