Louis L'Amour's The High Graders - Western Novel Review

Cover of the High Graders by Louis L'Amour - 1963 Bantam edition

MIKE SHEVLIN the HIGH GRADERS' lead character, returns to the town of Rafter Crossing after a 13 year absence to investigate the shooting death of Eli Patterson, an old man who once befriended him. He also finds himself investigating the beating death of the rancher Jack Moorman who he had also befriended. Having arrived, he lands in the midst of a town war. As one would expect, both murders and the town hostilities are related.


During his long absence, the at one time cowtown, has become a gold mining town with more trouble than it can handle. And the once powerful cattle ranchers are now battling with the miners over what ranchers and miners have always fought over; the land and pollution of the water supply. The real conflict, however, is the feud between two factions who have been involved in high grading the gold from the biggest mine.

Two years previously, Ray Hollister, a small rancher with big ambitions, partnered with a shyster lawyer to bring in a mining superintendent named Ben Stowe to do the high grading. But Ben Stowe does a double cross and maneuvers Hollister and his lawyer out of the swindle. Now Hollister is using the other ranchers to get revenge on Stowe and steal the stolen gold. So while the ranchers think it's Ranchers vs Miners, it's really High Grader vs High Grader.

"Somebody had been shrewd enough to let a whole community get its fingers sticky. By simply looking the other way while the minors high-graded a little gold, the men who operated the mines had made the townspeople accomplices to their own theft."

In addition, although the owner of the mine is keeping her identify secret, one of the crooked factions is trying to press her to sell the "unprofitable" mine so, as they tell it, the land can be returned to ranch-land.


In the meantime, the owner of the mine, Laine Tennison, grows suspicious of the ever-increasing pressure to sell and suspects that the mine is really worth more than the superintendent is revealing. While keeping her ownership secret, she comes from San Francisco on the pretense of visiting a relative in order to get a closer look at the situation in Rafter Crossing. She is convinced that her mine is being bled dry by high graders. And is certain that the gold has not been removed from the town yet. Furthermore, she believes that whoever is stealing it has it hidden somewhere right there in town!


Naturally, it is Mike Shevlin she wants to hire to find out who is behind it and how they're doing it. And when he gets involved, all hell breaks loose. Things get too hot and Stowe is forced to move the gold out fast, but he's got to get it past all those looking for it: the owner; Shevlin; Hollister and the ranchers. He finds a surprising ally to move the gold. An ally that is fully aware that he can't trust Stowe to not put him six feet under once the gold is safely delivered to its destination.

"He knew their kind, for in a sense he was one of them. The difference was that he had chosen to ride on the side of the law--and when you came down to it that was quite a difference. He had deeply ingrained within him a respect for the law, and the need for it. He knew that otherwise life would be a jungle, And he knew too, that many of those who made out to despise the law the most, found themselves wishing for its protection."

The love interest for our hero is Laine Tennison. Although Shevlin has a bad reputation, obtained from his youth, she has a high regard for him because her uncle was the very Eli Patterson whose death Shevlin came back to investigate. And it was Patterson who, while in her presence, once recommended Shevlin to Tennison's grandfather.


This is a great read; a real page turner. It's action-packed from start to finish. There's tons of gunplay, several murders, a bushwhacking, fistfights, a kidnapping, all kinds of double crossing and an assassin for hire. And as they say, there is no honor among thieves...or trust. There's hardly anyone without a secret. And everyone mistrusts everyone else. In addition to the mystery of who killed Eli Patterson & Jack Moorman, are the mysteries about who's double crossing who and how. Even Laine, at one point, wonders if Shevlin hasn't changed sides on her.


This is my second read of this book and I'll probably read it again.

Back cover of The High Graders by Louis L'Amour.  An accurate portrayal of the story.

FAVORITE LINE:

"Ma'am, I'm Mike Shevlin, and all hell's about to break loose."


OTHER FAVORITES:


"...you smell of trouble, and trouble is my business."


"I take notions"


"When a horse starts swishin' his tail there's no telling what burrs he'll pick up."


"By noon tomorrow I'm cutting my wolf loose, and if you're not with me you'd better hunt a hole."


"Ma'am, you never get far talking things over with a man holding a gun. And this here man wasn't much given to talk."



Cigarettes lit up 1
Cigars lit up 13
Pipes lit up 3
Gunplay 5
Fistfights 3
Murder 3
Bushwhackings 1
Kidnapping 1

UPDATED: Formatting corrected

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Weekly Quote: What Does a Man Really Need?

"When you boil it all down, what does a man really need? Just a smoke and a cup of coffee."

--from the 1954 movie JOHNNY GUITAR

R M Hankins' The Man from Wyoming - Western Novel Review

Cover of R M Hankins' The Man from Wyoming Bantam 1949

Originally published by MacRae-Smith Company in 1941 under the title of "Lonesome River Range",   R M Hankins' "The Man from Wyoming" was published in 1949 by Bantam. The novel is a mystery story similar to Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone" in which a woman witnesses her fiancé stealing a valued jewel and then spurns him without explaining why. Unbeknownst to either of them, he stole it while sleepwalking. So, while she did see him steal it, he's baffled by her behavior and years later is vindicated when a detective discovers the truth.

R M Hankins' odd dedication.

In R M Hankins' "The Man from Wyoming" story, the crime committed is not theft but murder.  A newlywed wife witnesses her husband murder her brother...or does she? The grand jury decides there's not enough evidence & his wife can't testify against him. But that doesn't keep the whole town from ostracizing him and his wife from spurning him.  So eventually he lights a shuck and disappears. Then two years later, a man who looks very much like her husband (only with a missing tooth and a scar) hires on at the ranch. Is he her husband's doppelgänger? Or is he her husband? Is he trying to cheat her out of her ranch? Or is he trying to save her ranch? There were so many twists and turns, first I was certain of one thing, and then certain of the opposite. His wife went a bit soft in the head when she witnessed him killing her brother so we're never sure how sane she is, although, at times she seems saner than and more intuitive and observant than anyone else in the story. 

The story is told in first-person which is my least-liked writing perspective. Although corny at times, it is an interesting story. It's just too bad it's weighed down with too much dialogue. It's also hampered by an overload of jargon & witty old-timer & one up-man-ship tales that don't support or advance the story.

In addition, the inconsistent morals are baffling. The woman hates her husband with a passion when she believes he's a murderer, but his look-alike comes along and is proven to be the real murderer and yet she's all for getting the ranch hands together to spring him from jail if he's convicted. Why didn't she support her husband likewise despite the fact she believed him to be the killer? And the narrator, who also hates him because he's a "killer" and even wants to shoot him on sight, calls the lookalike "the best man in the territory". Baffling.


I suppose if you don't think too hard, it's a good story.

Back Cover of R M Hankins' The Man from Wyoming

Cigarettes lit up 2
Gunplay 2
Pipes lit up 5
Pistol whippings 1
Fistfights 2
Murder 1
Bushwhackings 1

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Weekly Quote: Drinking Your Whiskey

"Always drink your whiskey with your gun hand, to show your friendly intentions."

From Ramon Adams' book, The Cowman and His Code of Ethics

Luke Short's Trouble Country - Western Novel Review

   

➽Luke Short's Trouble Country

I usually like stories written by Luke Short, but this one leaves me a mite disappointed.   

The main character of the story, Sam Dana, is a fiddle-footed cowboy who returns home following his father's death to find that his half-brother has let the ranch run down and has invited some hardcases to live in the main house. His brother's wife is so disgusted, she has moved into town. 

Sam doesn't really need the ranch as he's struck it rich with a coal mine so he's all set to sell his share of the ranch to his brother. However, when he hears accusations that his brother is a cattle rustler, he changes his mind, buys his brother out and sets to mend the tarnished Dana family name. 

Only his brother doesn't quit the area; instead he buys a neighboring ranch and commences to causing trouble. 

With a set-up like that, you'd expect lots of gunplay, bushwhacking and the possibility of Sam losing the ranch, his life or even his girl. 

Yep, there's a romance with the sheriff's daughter, but there's no conflict between the two to be resolved nor a challenge from another suitor to be overcome.  Disappointingly, before the romance even gets going, it turns sour when she heeds ugly rumors about Sam's sister-in-law and turns out to be both mean-spirited and prejudiced. 

And as for the ranch, there's never even the remote possibility he'll lose it. Yes, his brother burns down the ranch house, but golly, there's a still a small cabin there to live in and well, Sam is rich and can rebuild without much trouble. 

The story is well-written. My disappointment is in the expectation that there would be stronger resistance from Sam's half-brother and his hardcases. Turns out the hard-cases aren't as tough as we're led to believe and no challenge to Sam.  His brother is no challenge either.  He turns out to just be a weak-willed, slow-minded adversary.  And without the risk of losing something, or even gaining something worthwhile, there's no real investment in reading the story.

Back cover of Luke Short's TROUBLE COUNTRY western novel

One thing I like to do is compare the cover descriptions with the story to see if they measure up. The cover mentions rustlers having his ranch and him having to fight for it. That doesn't measure up with the story. He comes back, meets with his brother and buys him out with no resistance (other than an inflated price tag for his brother's share in the ranch.) 

Same with the back cover and the images. It all looks and sounds like there was never-ending  gunfights and skirmishes to get his ranch back. You'd think from reading this that Sam had hired a bunch of tough hands to fight his brother and his gun toughs and maybe there were some saloon brawls.

In fact, most of Sam's activity is in legal maneuvering, especially in achieving financial support for his half-brother's wife.  The legal maneuvering isn't even challenged with counter legal moves by his brother.

Cigarettes lit up 9

Gunplay 3

Fistfights 1

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Weekly Quote: Trying on Another Man's Hat

"Never try on another man's hat."

From Ramon Adam's The Cowman and His Code of Ethics

Ray Gaulden High Country Showdown - Western Novel

Paperback cover of Ray Gaulden's High Country Showdown

➽Ray Gaulden's High Country Showdown

There's no publication date on this western novel by Ray Gaulden.  It's printed by Starbooks out of Sydney, Australia.

A bit of an oddball western in that it's not about a range war, cattle rustling, gunman, cattle drive, mining town, cattle town, frontier fort, stagecoach run, wrongly accused cowboy or saving the ranch, but there is lots of gunplay and some fist fighting. 

The story is about a fella named Grady Galloway, who has gone looking for his missing father who went to Denver to get a bank loan to save the local ranchers. His father is being held captive in a high stakes poker game where he has won a large sum of money and the losers want a chance to win their money back.  Hence, the captivity.

The son finds him there, helps him escape and the rest of the story is the son's attempt to get the money back home to the local ranchers. 

Grady, inscrutably, leaves his six shooter at home despite being worried that his father has encountered some trouble in Denver.  First thing he has to do in Denver is buy a pistol.  That, I could never figured out.  If you're expecting trouble, why leave your pistol at home?

And then there's Libby Blue, a saloon singer desperate to escape a bad situation. Her path keeps crossing that of Galloway's and she ends up taking the same escape route. Thus, she and Galloway share the dangers of the pursuit. Yes; there's some romance, but it's a gruff sort of romance.  Gruff as in, neither seems to be much impressed with the other, but in the end, it's 'Yeah, well, what say we get married?'.

I love comparing the front and back cover descriptions the ad copy folks come up with for these paperbacks to see if it lives up to the story or not.  The front cover of this one says "A bounty on his head."  Technically, not true; there is no bounty as he hasn't broken any law. Galloway is just in trouble because he had to use gunplay to free his father from the poker game. But there is a gang out to get him and a gunman that has been paid to kill him. 

The back cover is accurate though. And the inside cover description of  Libby Blue is fairly accurate; although it turns out she's a better person than the initial impression Grady receives.

Not really impressed with the story, but it's not bad writing.

Still haven't figured out why he left his six shooter at the ranch.

Backcover of Ray Gaulden's High Country Showdown

Inside front of Ray Gaulden's High Country Showdown

Starbook Publication brand from Sydney, Australia - no date.

Cigarettes lit up: 11

Cigars lit up: 1

Pipes lit up: 3

Fistfights: 2

Pistol-whippings: 1

Gunplay: 8

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John Wayne Quote

"A man's got to have a code, a creed to live by, no matter his job."

-- John Wayne

L P Holmes' Night Marshal Western Novel

Hardcover edition of L P Holmes' Night Marshal- 1961

➽L P Holmes: Night Marshal

This Night Marshal western novel is the one that inspired this blog.  I read it when I was a kid and put it on the bookshelf, not touching it again for decades.

Then a few years ago, I was laid off for several months.  With lots of time on my hands, I snatched this off the bookshelf and re-read it. I fell in love with the characters and descriptions of the old west and the western vernacular.  So rather than watching television for hours, I entertained myself by reading western novels that I could get cheaply at the used bookstore. 

The paperback was already well worn out, but after reading it again and again, it's pretty much falling apart now.  Earlier this year, I decided to find a hardcover to replace it. I prefer the image on the paperback as it depicts an image of the rough area of the town the Night Marshal patrols--that is, Ute Street--while the hardcover only depicts a gun, gun-belt and star.  (The gun-belt's not even worn-looking.)

The story is a quintessential town-tamer yarn.  Actually, it's not even a town.  It's a mining camp. The day marshal is a town drunk who has seen better days.  He sends for a younger marshal friend to handle the night shift and to help tame the camp.  The younger marshal is disappointed to see his friend and mentor reduced to a drunk and unwilling to truly tackle the corrupting elements of the town.  In the end, the marshal does come through for his young friend and assists in shutting down the rotten part of the town.

It's not a typical mining camp as the miners are hardly mentioned; there's no feud between miners and cowboys as one would expect. Instead, it's the Ute Street bigshots versus the night marshal.  The night marshal's name is Chris Waddell.  He arrives in the camp with no money to his name.  The marshal's name is Frank Scorbie. After reuniting with Scorbie, Waddell is initially uncertain he wants the job. Pretty much no one in the camp respects Scorbie because he's both a town drunk and a marshal in name only; never crossing with the Ute Street crowd to whom he bows and scrapes. There's a good-natured gambler who befriends the night marshal (echoes of Doc Holliday). And there is a romance with the former retired marshal's daughter, Norma Vespasian. 

Vespasian isn't taken with Waddell in the beginning because of his friendship with Scorbie who she understandably despises.  There's a number of folks in the novel who are initially wary of Waddell for the same reasons.  I admire the way L P Holmes unfolds the change in the campfolks' attitude towards Waddell, especially in the interactions between Waddell and  Mike Vespasian (the former marshal) and his daughter.

The story includes some fist-fighting, gunplay, a robbery attempt, a vicious murder and the afore-mentioned romance.  It also includes much philosophizing and speechifying about life and what it takes to be a lawman: the physical demands, political challenges and psychological toll.

There was, it seemed, a critical point in the life of every man, when his destiny hung in thin balance and fate seemed to rear some kind of psychological barrier to challenge him.  If a man fail at this barrier, it meant a quitting, a retreat, and all too often such retreat was all the way into the bottle, in futile attempt to cover up, to blot out.

L P Holmes' is a master at describing sounds and sights to paint a realistic picture of places and his descriptions of people make you feel as if you are intimately acquainted with them. 

The mules stirred, leaning into their collars, tightening trace and chain.  The bells on the hame yokes of the leaders chimed musically and the wagons creaked into movement, swinging through a wide half-circle into a road which thrust straight at a barrier of timber.

They turned south into Ute Street and immediately moved into an atmosphere that made Chris Waddell swing his shoulders restlessly.  For here was 'The Gulch'.  Here, beyond an invisible, yet definite line, Midas Hill left all manners and morals behind.  Here was the camp's tenderloin, predatory, sinful, violent.  Here was a territory of human wolves and harpies, of dives and deadfalls.

This was the only western novel I had when I started, but when I hit Amazon and the used bookstores, L P Holmes was the first author I looked for.

Paperback cover of L P Holmes' Night Marshal

The cover does a fair job of depicting the rough part of the camp, Ute Street but it's not entirely accurate because it shows a man and woman who are apparently from the 'decent' side of town and per the novel, decent folks did not venture into Ute Street.

Back cover of paperback edition of L P Holmes' Night Marshal

Not all back covers do a good job of describing the contents of the book, but this one is dead-on.  If you like the description on the back cover, you'll like this book.

Inside cover of paperback edition of L P Holmes' Night Marshal

The inside cover describes the vicious murder of Chris Waddell's gambler friend.

Cigarettes lit up: 22
Cigars lit up: 11
Pipes lit up: 3
Gunplay: 2
Pistol-whipping: 1
Fist-fighting: 2

FAVORITE LINES:

"One thing is sure--he knows his way with a gun. And he carries a pretty tough rind."

"Maybe I won't fire easy."

"Keep on pushing and I'll throw you out!"
"A chore," taunted Waddell, "you could break your face on!"

"He's the kind who would take his mean out on a youngster."

"...my hunch was right...That a man had come to town."

"...I don't kill easy and I fight for keeps."

"Where the wisdom of the mind meets up with the emotion of the heart, wisdom suffers."


Hardcover published by Dodd, Mead & Company, 1961 - A Silver Star Western

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