The Wind River Kid is an old, old man, an aging gunfighter living out the last years of his life in an isolated ghost town during the 1920s, kept company only by phantoms of his own past. Then this relative calm is interrupted by the arrival of a young couple with plenty of trouble following them in the form of tommy-gun-toting gangsters. Wanting only to be left alone, the Wind River Kid is forced to take sides in this fight against varmints worse than any he ever came up against back in the Old West.
You couldn’t ask for a better Old West vs. New West novel than this one from 1982, nor a more mystical, beautifully written elegy for days gone by. In the spirit of full disclosure, one of the co-authors, Kerry Newcomb, has been a good friend of mine for nearly thirty years, but I read this book back when it first came out and it’s lingered in my mind for all that time, especially one evocative line towards the end. When THE GHOSTS OF ELKHORN was published, Kerry and his writing partner Frank Schaefer were already very successful authors, having written bestselling historical romance novels under the names Christina Savage and Shana Carrol, as well as historical adventures as Peter Gentry and a well-regarded thriller, PANDORA MAN, under their own names. There was talk of a movie deal for THE GHOSTS OF ELKHORN, but it never came about. As far as I know there was never a paperback edition of the novel, and it gradually faded from most memories as Kerry went on to a long and successful career as a solo novelist, producing several dozen excellent historical novels and Westerns. His books about the Anthem family of Texas, published first under the pseudonym James Reno and later reprinted under his own name, are some of the best traditional Westerns of the past twenty years. Anything you pick up by Kerry will give you a great story peopled by well-drawn characters.
But to my mind, THE GHOSTS OF ELKHORN is his masterpiece and deserves not to be forgotten . . . which is the whole point of posts like this, after all.
You couldn’t ask for a better Old West vs. New West novel than this one from 1982, nor a more mystical, beautifully written elegy for days gone by. In the spirit of full disclosure, one of the co-authors, Kerry Newcomb, has been a good friend of mine for nearly thirty years, but I read this book back when it first came out and it’s lingered in my mind for all that time, especially one evocative line towards the end. When THE GHOSTS OF ELKHORN was published, Kerry and his writing partner Frank Schaefer were already very successful authors, having written bestselling historical romance novels under the names Christina Savage and Shana Carrol, as well as historical adventures as Peter Gentry and a well-regarded thriller, PANDORA MAN, under their own names. There was talk of a movie deal for THE GHOSTS OF ELKHORN, but it never came about. As far as I know there was never a paperback edition of the novel, and it gradually faded from most memories as Kerry went on to a long and successful career as a solo novelist, producing several dozen excellent historical novels and Westerns. His books about the Anthem family of Texas, published first under the pseudonym James Reno and later reprinted under his own name, are some of the best traditional Westerns of the past twenty years. Anything you pick up by Kerry will give you a great story peopled by well-drawn characters.
But to my mind, THE GHOSTS OF ELKHORN is his masterpiece and deserves not to be forgotten . . . which is the whole point of posts like this, after all.
10 comments:
Sounds cool. I'm going to look around for this one. I like this forgotten books thing. It's right down my line.
It does sound interesting. I'll find this one.
Great stuff. I think I have a blog post about it, but I'm too lazy to look for it.
You're not lazy, Bill, just busy. Your post about THE GHOSTS OF ELKHORN is here:
http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2006/05/ghosts-of-elkhorn-kerry-newcomb-frank.html
My favorite forgotten author is Karin McQuillan who wrote three mysteries about African Safari organizer Jazz Jasper in the 90s then completely disappeared. For years afterward I was also make a close scan of the 'm' section of the mystery section in book stores hoping to find a new story. Long after there was any reasonable hope that she would write another story I've continued to look for her.
I don't think I'd heard of McQuillan until now. I'll keep an eye out for those three books of hers.
Forgotten memoir by real old west gunfighter.
http://oldwestlawmansforgottenmemoir.com
This forgotten books thing is great, as Charles said. Too bad I haven't had a chance to read anything un-Finnish for a long time, since I'm writing a book about Mika Waltari. Maybe I should to a post about his books that have been available in English.
I read this book - mnay times actually - before 1982. My kid sister was working as a publicist for Viking Press nad it came across her desk before it hit the stores. It really was one of the best westerns I had ever read.
I have always remembered it and was always disappointed that a movie deal never developed. I knew that option had been picked up because I tried to buy it! It would have been perfect to use one of the older classic western actors and slip in footage from earlier classic westerns in the flashback scenes. Oh well, opportunities lost, I suppose.
Someone ought to reissue this book!
This is good humor. I went to a book signing this weekend and recommended The Ghosts of Elkhorn to the author. Cool.
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